Special Inspector General Iraq Report

Here is the link to 244 page, 12,196 KB, ADOBE PDF that goes over the Inspector General Quarterly report submitted to congress. All of the reports dating back to March 2004 can be found here. So if you have some time for a little light reading you can go through and view what has been reported to congress every three months. So when they complain that they don’t know what is going on over there, you can tell who isn’t keeping up with their reading assignments.

USA starts off with a negative headline, but actually does do a fair job of breaking down the highlights. It can be found in the report but a important observation is condensed in the article.

Still, the record daily electricity production of 123,000 megawatt-hours on Sept. 16 met only 60% of demand. Proliferation of electric appliances such as televisions, air conditioners and laundry machines has helped drive up demand for power, the report says.

Modern appliance demand has sky rocketed, not just in the metro area but throughout the country. To me this sounds like people trying to make a better life or at least an easier life.

I can’t help but remember an episode of M.A.S.H where the question of why the US was in Korea got tabled by Hawkeye during an insomniac period to Burns. Burns being the idiot he is, replied along the lines of “they want our toilets.” Burns was wrong about the North Koreans wanting our way of life, but apparently the Iraqis are moving in that direction.

Update:
The BBC was not nearly as objectived as they cherry-picked the negatives.
As does the Washington Post.

Update II:
As I said in the first part of this post, there are some in Congress who claim they are underinformed and know they want to do something about it.

"This bill will inject Congress into the process, so that it can meet its constitutional responsibility," Jones said. "We will require more reporting from the White House, and we will require more consultation with the White House. This is a bill I think will have a lot of support in Congress."

This is just a sound bite to paint the WHite House secretive.

"We know that the Framers of the Constitution initially had language that said, only Congress can 'make war,' and changed it to only Congress can 'declare war' - they changed it because they realized that there were wars we would be in that were not officially declared," Rotunda said.

I have a feeling that Rotunda gets the wrong idea out of the change from "Make" to "Declare". After Congress declares war, it is up to the President (whoever the president is) to carryout the war or to "Make War". It was change to keep Congress out of the decisions, tactics and strategies because "too many cooks spoil the dish". The Congress can declare war and can stop wars through defunding it. The current Congress is appearently unwilling to stop it since they keep funding it.There is nothing for the Congress to re-assume since they haven't lost anything. Congress approved the military effort in Iraq and if they were mislead but someone who is supposedly an idiot, what does that make them? Perhaps those that were fooled so harshly need to be voted out of office and never let back.