And by the looks of things won’t be getting any cheaper.

The Bush administration is considering asking Congress later this year for at least $2 billion in new reconstruction money, primarily for maintaining completed Iraqi facilities.

Why would we call it “new reconstruction money” when it is to be used for maintainence?

We should know by now that maintaining infrastructure is not cheap. If we intend to continue building schools and paving roads in the Middle East it is prudent to consider how much this is going to cost and where the money is going to come from.

The issue of maintaining facilities has added importance in light of a report Mr. Bowen released last week. He said that because of rising security costs and other factors, the U.S. will be able to finish only 49 of 136 planned water projects and 300 of 425 electric projects.

It is beginning to look like we cannot build what we had hoped to build and what we were able to build we cannot afford to maintain.

Going forward I can’t help but wonder how much more of this we can expect

Soon, large quantities of cash began arriving in Baghdad, shipped in on C17 cargo planes. The cash arrived on pallets loaded with shrink-wrapped bundles of $US100 notes. The parcels, which soon became known as "bricks", were handed out "like candy", one Democrat congressman said.
In all, $US12 billion in cash, weighing 363 tonnes, was flown into Iraq. On December 12, 2003 one flight to Iraq contained $US1.5billion in cash, the largest single Federal Reserve payout in US history, according to Henry Waxman, the Democrat congressman who is investigating the funding. The US has so far spent $US226 billion on the Iraq war.

I guess the real question is, when will Bush give the State of the Empire address?