Violence encourages corruption

Yes, the violence in Iraq is unbearable.  A car bomb in Kirkuk killed four on Saturday.  Three Marines were killed a few days back in Iraq's unstable Anbar Province.  This comes as U.S. troop levels are expected to be increased by 4,000.

But as bad as the violence is, there is also something that needs to be said about all the corruption.  As revealed in Sunday's New York Times, a government audit of a State Department agency showed that the agency deliberately hid cost overruns on projects in Iraq that were being funded by U.S. taxpayers:

The agency hid construction overruns by listing them as overhead oradministrative costs, according to the audit, written by the SpecialInspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent office thatreports to Congress, the Pentagon and the State Department.

Called the United States Agency for International Development, orA.I.D., the agency administers foreign aid projects around the world.It has been working in Iraq on reconstruction since shortly after the2003 invasion.

The report by the inspector general’s office doesnot give a full accounting of all projects financed by the agency’s$1.4 billion budget, but cites several examples.

The findingsappeared in an audit of a children’s hospital in Basra, but theyreferred to the wider reconstruction activities of the developmentagency in Iraq. American and Iraqi officials reported this week thatthe State Department planned to drop Bechtel, its contractor on thatproject, as signs of budget and scheduling problems began to surface.

This kind of recklessness is analogous to the report that surfaced in January of 2005 about how $9 billion worth of taxpayer dollars in Iraq for some reason vanished.

This is our money!  Just imagine if the $9 billion we spend each month in Iraq was used in our own country -- rebuilding bridges and roads, fully funding education, keeping Social Security solvent, making communities safer, or even paying down part of our debt.  But no, they would rather see our money in the hands of people who can't manage resources properly.  Since the Republicans have ignored this problem, if the Democrats take back Congress in November we should all expect them to issue subpoenas and hold hearings in order to get to the bottom of how our money was mismanaged.  Each dime we spend in Iraq means more debt -- which is nothing more than a birth tax on future generations.