BUSH IRAQ STRATEGY FOOKED UP AS USUAL

GAO report faults Bush Iraq strategy

By Christina Bellantoni
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
July 12, 2006



http://www.washtimes.com/national/20...0049-8290r.htm

A Government Accountability Office report released yesterday asserts that the Bush administration's Iraq strategy is inadequate and was poorly planned, backing up some politicians' charges that a prolonged stay in the country is only fueling sectarian violence.
David M. Walker, the U.S. comptroller general, told lawmakers that President Bush did not give proper consideration to conditions on the ground and said the administration is not demanding accountability for the $1.5 billion per week that the United States spends in Iraq.
Details from the report, which included descriptions of a bloated Iraqi bureaucracy and widespread mismanagement of reconstruction funding, were revealed at a House subcommittee hearing called by Rep. Christopher Shays, Connecticut Republican.
"I am not afraid we will lose the war in Iraq, in Iraq," said Mr. Shays, one of the most politically endangered House Republicans. Mr. Shays is a moderate whose district is strongly Democratic. "I am deeply concerned we will lose the war in Iraq here at home."
Also yesterday, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat, suggested that sectarian violence will continue in Iraq because the administration lacks a victory plan.
"After all of our achievements -- and they are real, they are significant -- the larger reality is that Iraq and the success of our mission there remains a prisoner to terrible and growing violence and a lack of a plan to stop it," he said.
Mr. Biden, who has said he will pursue a White House bid in 2008, and Sen. Jack Reed, Rhode Island Democrat, toured Iraq last week and noted a lack of basic civilian services such as trash collection and running water, as well as an increasing unemployment rate that is exacerbating the growth of insurgent groups.
"I still don't see a strategy for victory in Iraq. The only strategy I see is the strategy to prevent outright defeat," Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Reed, the co-sponsor of a failed measure to begin "phased redeployment" of troops from Iraq by Dec. 31, agreed.
Mr. Walker told the House Government Reform subcommittee on national security, emerging threats and international relations that the Bush administration plan lacks transparency, including details of which agencies are responsible for the various efforts in Iraq and how the U.S. role will evolve as more Iraqi forces become prepared.
Most striking was the charge that the administration has not given Congress enough information on the estimated costs and funding sources, making a price tag for reconstruction impossible to calculate because the length of time U.S. forces will remain is not clear.

BUSH CONTINUES TO BANKRUPT AMERICA !!