Friday, February 29, 2008

No, this isn't really funny - but it's easier to laugh than cry!

These two headlines/stories are juxtaposed on news.yahoo.com's "Iraq news" page. The juxtaposition is almost certainly accidental, but it provides some rather bleak humor.

From AP:
Baghdad embassy project in trouble
... and also from AP:
US reducing investigators from Iraq
The first story relates that
"Federal officials last year certified as complete the new $736 million U.S. embassy in Iraq, even though the mammoth complex was still plagued by construction defects, a senior House Democrat charged Friday.
...
"Difficulties included major malfunctions in the complex's physical plant, including electrical and water distribution systems, some of which are blamed on shoddy work by the company hired to build the project, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co., for $592 million."
The second notes that
"The U.S. plans to reduce the number of auditors and investigators at its development agency in Baghdad."
Let me see if I understand this:

Inadequate oversight of a local contractor is at least partly to blame for U.S. Embassy construction fiasco, so we've decided now's a good time to reduce the number of folks overseeing local contractors in Baghdad!

This seems to exemplify W's skills as Chief Executive quite nicely!

Stop the madness!

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