Thanks, Katrina Vanden Heuvel...

In presenting his plan for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq this week, current Representative and now Presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich, noted that "after the first Gulf War, Iraqis reestablished electricity within three months, despite sanctions. Four years into the US occupation there is no water, nor reliable electricity in Baghdad." He also pointed out that Iraqis receive a paltry 5 percent of subcontracts while US contractors make billions of dollars and "millions of Iraqis do not have a means of financial support, nor substantive employment." Kucinich's example cuts to the heart of the gross corruption, waste and profiteering that marks the failed Iraqi Reconstruction effort – over $50 billion spent on private contractors with little return and billions unaccounted for. Not only did the Republican Congress turn its back on its Constitutional responsibility for oversight, it even attempted to surreptitiously oust the one individual who was uncovering some of the corruption – Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart W. Bowen. So what did President Bush offer on Wednesday night as a solution to rein in the waste and fraud of the Iraqi Reconstruction effort? "A reconstruction coordinator in Baghdad to ensure better results for economic assistance being spent in Iraq." Seriously.