Two Shoes for George W. Bush

After watching this weekend's startling video of President George W. Bush ducking two shoes being hurled at his head by an Iraqi journalist in Baghdad, you may be asking yourself, why is that guy so pissed? Or, don't they have cream pies in Iraq?



Well, more news over the weekend may provide some insight. Via the AP:

A detailed official history of the U.S. effort to reconstruct Iraq after Saddam Hussein's overthrow in 2003 blamed its failings on "blinkered and disjointed" prewar planning, a deadly insurgency and wasteful and ill-managed contracting.

The 500-plus page document also asserts that the Bush administration, in early stages of the war, exaggerated the number of Iraqi forces trained to help American troops provide adequate security.

The report, "Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience" was prepared by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, and can be read in its entirety here.

The summation of the report's dizzying account of mismanagement, outright fraud, and other shoe-baiting tales of woe:

Answering whether the program met its goals to rebuild Iraq and modernize its infrastructure, the report concludes, "Generally, no."

Still, throwing shoes just isn't nice. Then again, the reporter, Nuntathar al Zaidi, had been taken hostage by Shiite gunmen in 2007, and apparently saw the United States' poor planning as one reason why. If, like me, you prefer to voice your frustration in a less physical way, you can always click over to blogslut.com and toss a virtual shoe or two.

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