That's what Rick Noriega, a Democratic candidate down in Texas thinks about the Iraqi failure to use their own oil revenues to rebuild what U.S. bombing has destroyed. What is he thinking?
The same thing as Senator Levin, it seems. The latter, having more regular access to the TV, gets to share this stupid opinion with the whole world. I can just see people shaking their heads all over, wondering what's gotten into the Americans. After all, we used to have a reputation for being practical and practical people don't start rebuilding while their neighborhood is still being bombed.
Of course, most Americans don't know that the occupation forces are still launching a plane over Iraq every five minutes, 'round the clock, and that bombs are being dropped at an increasing rate to "get them, before they get us." Most Americans probably assume that the rubble they occasionally see on their TV is the result of car bombs, which they have been told the Iraqis set themselves, leaving the impression that it's all their own fault.
It's true, the CIA has told us, that car bombs were a regular effort to de-stabilize the Saddam Hussein regime and that they were organized by Iyad Alawi to demonstrate his ability to mobilize support in preparation for taking charge. The CIA knows because the agency taught the Iraqis how to make car bombs, not realizing, one suspects, that these jury-rigged weapons are ever so much more destructive than the ones they drop because of the shock-waves that are transmitted through the ground. Guilt probably keeps them from going into the details because, it turns out, even the containment building of a nuclear plant could be cracked by the detonnation of a car way outside the protective fence.
Of course, when buildings are getting blown up on a regular basis (the Helsinki Agreement last year called for the "continuous bombardment" to be halted) and people are "taken out" by hellfire missiles ($58,000 a piece), spattering their guts all over the place, nobody's going to have much stomach for rebuilding. And it isn't just the buildings that are destroyed. Even when it's just tanks and howitzers rolling through the streets, water and sewer lines will burst and then everything has to be dug up all over again to fix the leaks. That's not something anyone with any sense undertakes when it's almost certain the next patrol will undo the repairs all over again.
On the other hand, it may just be that most Americans don't want to think what's under the ground, here or over there, and their representatives reflect that. After all, their housing developments sprout like magic, faucets provide water and switches turn on the lights. And that's how Americans like it. It's the faith-based life.
We could call it the Disneyfication of American existence. Certainly that's what seems to be going on on those U.S. Air Force oases that have sprung up in Iraq--Americana transplanted whole like so many Seahavens, the fictional town in the Truman Show.
So, which comes first, fact or fiction?
