some more....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/09/international/middleeast/09hearing.html?_r=1&oref=slogin


WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 — Virtually every measure of the performance of Iraq's oil, electricity, water and sewerage sectors has fallen below preinvasion values even though $16 billion of American taxpayer money has already been disbursed in the Iraq reconstruction program, several government witnesses said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday.

...This downsizing of expectations was striking given that $30 billion American taxpayer money has already been dedicated to the task, according to an analysis by Mr. Christoff of the accountability office. Of that money, $23 billion has already been obligated to specific rebuilding contracts, and $16 billion of that amount has been disbursed, Mr. Christoff said....

...In addition, two of the witnesses said they believed that an earlier estimate by the World Bank that $56 billion would be needed for rebuilding over the next several years was too low...

...In one sense, focusing on the plummeting performance numbers "misses the point," Mr. Bowen said. The real question, he said, is whether the Iraqi security forces will ever be able to protect the infrastructure from insurgent attack...






>I've heard that comment from several analysts commenting on the bush budget. The budget makes several assumptions, the cost of the war being one, that are highly unlikely to come true.
>
>>>Comments like, “it will take ten years before we can leave Iraq”, or “it will be decades before we can rebuild the infrastructure of Iraq”, are not something most Americans want to hear. Yet these are the words coming from the Presidents Staff.
>>
>>Then you'll really like this one...
>>
>>http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1681119,00.html
>>
>>The real cost to the US of the Iraq war is likely to be between $1 trillion and $2 trillion (£1.1 trillion), up to 10 times more than previously thought, according to a report written by a Nobel prize-winning economist and a Harvard budget expert.
>>The study, which expanded on traditional estimates by including such costs as lifetime disability and healthcare for troops injured in the conflict as well as the impact on the American economy, concluded that the US government is continuing to underestimate the cost of the war.