The New York Times calls Squandered Victory, the hot new book by Larry Diamond, “an insider’s troubling account of the U.S. role in Iraq.”
Diamond, a scholar and former senior adviser to Baghdad’s Coalition Provisional Authority, describes the “failures of the Bush administration to prepare” for the postwar in “chilling – and often scathing – detail.” Diamond recounts “day-to-day realities on the ground,” a “stark contrast” to Bush’s spin.
Meanwhile, The Guardian‘s Simon Jeffries lashes himself for failing “to foresee the collapse of postwar Iraq,” then explicates the Downing St. minutes, mentioning that The Village Voice has a good primer on DSM.
The AP reports that “[t]he House is expected to give the Pentagon an additional $45 billion for wars next year even as public support for combat in Iraq wanes and lawmakers press for an exit strategy.”
On Thursday, “a House subcommittee recommended almost halving the president’s $3 billion request” for aid to poor countries next year, “citing the pressures of a tight budget,” reports the NYT. The aid is being shredded amidst “intense criticism from African leaders and the departure of its director after only a year in the job.”
All the while — with PBS/NPR budgets and HUD’s fair housing program severely cut back — money disappears god knows where in Iraq:
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