WE BUILT THIS CITY
WE BUILT THIS CITY
WE BUILT THIS CITY ON SMOKE AND MIRRRORRRS

Congresspersons from both sides of the aisle are assailing Bush on the postwar rebuilding effort in Iraq.

Lawmakers have been stewing for weeks over the administration's failure to consult in depth with Congress about the costs, methods and goals of rebuilding Iraq, and some of those frustrations boiled over at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The concerns from lawmakers underscored the challenges facing the administration not only in Iraq, but also in maintaining support in Congress, allied capitals and among the American public for the difficult and dangerous postwar mission.

"I am concerned that the administration's initial stabilization and reconstruction efforts have been inadequate," said Senator Richard G. Lugar, an Indiana Republican who heads the committee. "The planning for peace was much less developed than the planning for war." Mr. Lugar said the physical and political reconstruction of Iraq could take at least five years.

Why does Dick Lugar hate America so much?

(btw, that's five years if we're lucky, we could even be the confused middleman in a civil war in the coming years too . . . though I suppose that would make Bush's "victory" speech on the USS Lincoln even more ironic)

Though I don't have it in front of me, this recalls a Tom Friedman interview for RollingStone in which he commented that the Bush team is far better at destroying things than putting them back together. This, of course, was before Friedman fell into the mental state of "Gee, it sounds like such a good idea, but the Bush administration has screwed up just about everything foreign policywise up to this point . . . but . . . but . . . they're due!!!" Oy.