Pre-Post

     There's so much terrible news about the future of Iraq in this post that I should link to it (tipped by Get Your War On).  'Marshall Plan' for Iraq Fades

But the commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq, Gen. William H. McCoy, said at a recent briefing that the last of 3,100 reconstruction projects would soon be awarded, and almost all would be completed before the year ends.

Oh, so I guess that means Iraq is all reconstructed, eh?

"We were never intending to rebuild Iraq," McCoy said. "We were providing enough funds to jump-start the reconstruction effort in this country."

Oh, thanks for making that crystal clear.  Could I get the President to repeat that?

Baghdad's roads are an obstacle course of barriers, potholes and debris. Many government and office buildings are either still gutted or strung with webs of electrical wire connecting to generators that run 12 hours on good days. A brown haze fouls the air and pools of sewage overflow dot the streets.

Oh, I see. That's reconstructed.  Don't like it, Iraqis?

"The world is a competitive place," Tom Delare, economics counselor at the U.S. Embassy, said this month during a news briefing. "You have to convince the investor that it is worth his while to put his money in your community."

Not good enough?  Try this guy...

"No pain, no gain," Andy Wylegala, whose job at the embassy is to help Americans do business in Iraq