Only about 1 billion of 18 billion has been use to date...

Rebuilding on hold
The reconstruction of Iraq is way behind as the insurgency intensifies and the U.S. redirects funds for power, water and other projects into improving security and oil production.

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By Rory McCarthy

Sept. 15, 2004 | BAGHDAD --

Within hours of the latest suicide bombing in Baghdad Tuesday, Faleh Naqib, the Iraqi interior minister, had arrived at the scene dressed in a suit and sunglasses to signal his government's determination to tackle the terrible spiral of violence. At least he was brave enough to venture to the blast site. When the U.S. occupation authorities were running the country before July, none of their officials dared visit the scenes of the countless explosions that have claimed so many innocent lives. Yet Tuesday morning, as most Iraqis do most days, the crowd mocked and taunted the minister and his government, incensed at the lawlessness of the new Iraq.

It is almost exactly 18 months since America and Britain embarked on the invasion and reshaping of Iraq. By now they had expected marked signs of reconstruction and development and the foundation of a democratic process that would wipe clean decades of dictatorship and hold up a model for the Arab world. And yet the project looks bleaker than ever before. For the second time this year the U.S. military has lost control of several pockets of insurgency across Iraq, including such towns as Fallujah and Ramadi, in the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad, and even districts of the capital itself, such as the eastern Shiite slums of Sadr City.

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