Renewal In Iraq

Hmmm... we must be making progress in Iraq if the White House website says we are! Just look at those smiling faces!



But wait...



Then there's the Cincinnati Post...

A New Skepticism

The official White House line, dutifully echoed by Republican members of Congress, was that the rebuilding of Iraq was going ahead just fine. The only reason that reconstruction appeared to be in trouble was that the media reported it that way.

You don't hear that anymore. Indeed, you are beginning to hear Republican criticism of the lack of progress in Iraq.

The Bush administration this week asked Congress for permission to shift $3.46 billion from reconstruction -- sewer, water and electricity -- to security. The administration wants 20 more Iraqi national guard battalions, 45,000 more police and 16,000 additional border guards. It was, said Sen. Chuck Hagel, the Nebraska Republican, "an acknowledgment that we are in deep trouble."

The senators were also alarmed that of the $18.4 billion for Iraqi reconstruction that the Congress had passed with such urgency last November, only a little over $1 billion has been spent.

Security concerns and bureaucratic foot-dragging may play a role in the failure to launch timely infrastructure projects that would get restless and angry Iraqis off the streets and into productive jobs. But the indications are that the administration was overwhelmed by the scope of the problem.

That was Sen. Richard Lugar's take at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which the Indiana Republican chairs. He blamed the blind optimism of "the dancing in the street crowd" within the administration: "The lack of planning is apparent."

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Oh, and...

Government Warns Americans of Travel to Iraq

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department reminded Americans Friday of the dangers of traveling in Iraq, a day after two American construction workers were kidnapped from their home in Baghdad.

"The security threat to all American citizens in Iraq remains extremely high, with a high risk of attacks on civilians," the department said in a travel warning update. "...All vehicular travel in Iraq is extremely dangerous."

The department, without providing additional details, said it had credible information that terrorists have targeted civil aviation, and warned of the danger of using civilian aircraft to enter or leave Iraq.

Insurgents are targeting hotels, restaurants, police stations, checkpoints, foreign diplomatic missions, international organizations and other locations with expatriate personnel, the department said.

Attacks occur throughout the day, but travel at night is especially dangerous, the warning said. It described as particularly dangerous: Travel in or through Ramadi and Fallujah; between al-Hillah and Baghdad; and between the International Zone and Baghdad International Airport.

Americans who visit or live in Iraq have been urged for some time to pay close attention to their security, avoid crowds and inform the U.S. Embassy of their presence in the country. More than 100 foreigners have been abducted since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and many have been killed.

On Thursday, two Americans and a Briton were seized from their house in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood where many embassies and foreign companies are based, according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry and witnesses.