Looks Like We're Going To Find Out...

...which is more inept at one very specific task State or Defense.

-AF
HT: Raw Story

Locking The Barn Door After The Goat Is Gone

al-Maliki's government kicks out 1300 Iraqi soldiers & cops for desertion. Like we needed another indication that all of that money going to arming, equipping and training Iraq's security forces is poorly spent.

Though its never come done hard on deserters before, Iraq's largely Shiite government claims many of these mostly Shiite cops & troops will be tried by primarily Shiite military courts. That's if more mostly Shiite cops & troops can or will catch 'em.

Let me know how that works out, OK?

-AF

$600 Million For Reconstruction? What Reconstruction? Oh, That Reconstruction.

On Tuesday, US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker told Sen. Carl Levin that we're “no longer involved in the physical reconstruction business." What's funny is that as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Levin had just received a tiny little request:

The same day we’re asked to shift $600 million to reconstruction.” He (Levin) added that “today the president says we’re almost down to zero” in terms of reconstruction spending.

Gates told Levin that there must be some confusion and that perhaps the money was intended to pay Iraqi police or other military forces, but that it was most likely not for reconstruction.

About 15 minutes later, Gates was passed a note by an aide. He stopped the proceedings to offer an apology to Levin, concluding that the $600 million was in fact intended for reconstruction. “[T]here are actually things that go on that I don’t know about,” said Gates by way of explanation. “I will take a very close look at it. ... I think this is an area where there is broad agreement the Iraqis should be spending their own money.”
(Politico's "The Crypt")

This is yet another indicator of just how fucked up and unbelievably expensive Bush's Iraq Adventure has become that Gates (and Crocker too) has no idea that his DOD requested $600 million for a reconstruction program he thought no longer existed.
-AF


HT: TPM Muckraker