The Reality Gap

All the phony arguments for war aside -- putting aside any mention of the dishonest manipulation of intelligence and the blatant lying by Bush, Rice, Cheney and Powell -- you have to admit that these people are at least consistent.

We still don't get the truth out of them, and they no longer seem to be able to deal with reality. There is a huge gap between the Bushies and the real world -- it is evident when General Casey talks about 500 insurgent attacks per week as "normal", and when Bush runs a staged interview with some Troops, and when Cheney talks about the "last throes" of the insurgency.

The gap between the real world and Bush world should worry all of us -- so far, we have seen its consequences in Iraq and New Orleans. Who knows what will be next?

In the days and weeks ahead, we will see whether the Iraqi constitution is the foundation for peace and good government, or the latest in a series of blunders leading to outright civil war. We have heard the Bush propaganda -- what will be the reality? Perhaps we can best judge by considering the reality of the reconstruction effort...

This Knight Ridder article speaks to the reality of Iraq (excerpt below), and to our utter failure to achieve the reconstruction of Iraq's essential infrastructure, let alone the construction of legitimate and functioning civil institutions:

The Bush administration cannot fulfill all its grand promises to rebuild Iraq because soaring security costs, mismanagement and poor planning have cost billons of dollars, federal auditors said Tuesday.

Some projects - including those to provide clean water for Iraqis - have been cancelled as a result.

In one case, security costs for a U.S. Agency for International Development program on economic reform increased from $894,000 to $37 million, an auditor told Congress.

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