There are two pretty damning articles in the Washington Post which back up what Salam Pax is saying, Iraq's Ragged Reconstruction and Up in Arms in Baghdad. The articles should be read in full.

Salam Pax writes:

American civil administration in Iraq is having a shortage of Bright ideas. I keep wondering what happened to the months of “preparation” for a “post-saddam” Iraq. What happened to all these 100-page reports, where is that Dick Cheney report? Why is every single issue treated like they have never thought it would come up? What’s with the juggling of people and ideas about how to form that “interim government”? Why does it feel like they are using the [lets-try-this-lets-try-that] strategy? Trial and error on a whole country?

The various bodies that have been installed here don’t seem to have much coordination between them. We all need to feel that big sure and confident strides forward are being taken; it is not like this at all. And how about stopping empty pointless gestures and focusing on things that are real problems? Can anyone tell me what the return of children to schools really means? Other than it makes nice 6 o’clock news footage.

Schools have been looted; there are schools that have cluster bombs thrown in them when fedayeen were still there, no one bothered to clean that mess up before issuing the call on [Information Radio] that all students should go back to schools. How about clearing the mess created by the sudden disappearing of the ration distribution centers? How about getting the Hospitals back in shape? How about making it safe to walk in the street?

I mean there are a million more pressing issues for these committees meeting daily than getting children back to unsafe schools.
Yes yes I know. Patience. God needed seven days to finish his work and all that.

Living in my headphones. The best place to be these days.

From the first article on the failure of the reconstruction:

A month after U.S. forces seized Baghdad, the Pentagon's occupation authority remains plagued by insufficient resources and inadequate preparations, fueling complaints from Iraqis and doubts about the Bush administration's promise to reconstruct the country swiftly and set its politics on a new, democratic course.

Military commanders, who roared into Baghdad and crushed President Saddam Hussein's government April 9, have not placed enough troops on the streets since then to tackle crime, restore a sense of public order and otherwise fill an authority... U.S. officers, acknowledging Iraqis' complaints about lax security, have pleaded that their troops are stretched too thin, and have announced plans to bring more personnel into Baghdad, including military police.

Civilian officials, meanwhile, have struggled to fulfill their pledge to dole out emergency payments to millions of cash-strapped Iraqi government workers. Restoration of services, particularly electricity and water, has been spotty, despite promises to get things working fast. At the same time, U.S. officials have yet to fully address fuel shortages that have exasperated Iraqis forming mile-long lines at gas stations — in a country that was a major oil producer.

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