Is there anyone who didn't expect this?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5763483/

With all this shit going down over in Iraq, the Admin should have and could have been over to HQ at HAL and given them the "what's up" on how business was going to go down. In some respects HAL was an obvious choice for some of the work to be done but they have allowed egg to be thrown in the admin's face on the whole subject of Iraq.

In turn this has hurt the mission and endangered troops. A couple of "Hey you motherfuckers" phone calls from Cheney woulda done wonders. I just don't think those phone calls happened cuz I don't hear about em.

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Halliburton also benefited
While the International Advisory and Monitoring Board said the audit found no evidence of fraud in spending by the CPA after the U.S. invasion in March 2003, it said oversight was insufficient to ensure money was used for its intended purposes.

One of the main benefactors of the Iraq funds was the Texas-based firm Halliburton, which was paid more than $1 billion out of those funds to bring in fuel for Iraqi civilians.

The monitoring board said despite repeated requests it had not been given access to U.S. audits of contracts held by Halliburton, which was once run by Vice President Dick Cheney, and other firms that used the development funds.

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to you as a continuim of comments below.

BK

But this is a screw up nonetheless.

Conversely, I'd NEVER vote for Kerry, for the way he has behaved as well. I've got him pegged as a backstabber.

BK

Granted, the world is a lot more complicated now than it was when we declared our independence from England back in 1776, but this current time in our history is hardly one of our toughest times.  Dumbya is presiding over both a bad economy and a now unpopular and unjustified war, neither of which he knows how to handle.  Many presidents have been in this position, dealing with one or both of these issues while in office.

I can think of many other incidents in our history that were a whole lot tougher than Shrub's current three years plus mismanagement of the presidency:  the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War.  All of those events actually had a direct impact on the U.S.A.'s continued economic, political, and physical existence.  Franklin Roosevelt directly had to deal with TWO of those events (the Depression & WWII).  Now that was a president with a full plate of tough times.

I won't downplay either the complexity or the number of issues our country faces now or in the future.  Sometime, we will again face another significant crossroads in our existence similar to those I've mentioned.  We're not there yet.  Dumbya, in my opinion, has screwed things up for us both domestically and internationally since stealing office, but even with that, he hasn't put us on the verge of total collapse. However, if he isn't replaced come November, we just might begin to start speeding down that road a lot quicker than any of us would care to see.

I am afraid another four years in the "Bushes" might make it so.  The longer we leave him in, the more difficult the clean up is going to be, not only for the US, for the whole world.  

/Zin

I see the very nature of war changed forever. No longer is it standing army against standing army. It is covert operatives planning mass murder on civilians. Using our very system of freedom and how we live as their cover.

I see emerging economies in asia, primarily China acting as huge commodity and raw material vaccuums converting themselves into manufacturing giants. Giants that are not encumbered by our over-litigation, over-regulation, environmental concerns etc...
Creating huge strains on costs and even supplies of raw materials and food stuffs.

I see us responding with artificial cost increases like "living wages" and universal health care, making us still less competitive globally.

Oh, I think we're "there" you just don't realize it yet. I think we are facing challenges that far precede Bush and neither he NOR kerry are capable of dealing with.

BK

"I see the very nature of war changed forever. No longer is it standing army against standing army. It is covert operatives planning mass murder on civilians. Using our very system of freedom and how we live as their cover."

    I agree with this to an extent.  We will still need large troop units to engage similar troop units of an enemy.  But we also need to develop far larger numbers of special operations soldiers who can fight from any model.  Probaly the largest challenge that we face as a nation when combating terrorism is we do not have enough loyal people who speak the languages of potential terrorist adversaries and who can blend in with indigenous people of the region that they are operating in and live among them, if necessary, for as long as required to accomplish their mission.  We are seeing, in the struggle that we have with Bin Laden, that money alone cannot "buy" people who are close enough to him to let us know where he is hiding.
    The brand of terrorist that Bin Laden seems to search for would plant C4 in the clothing of their infant if that was needed to accomplish the act of terror that they were sent to conduct.  We have people among the metally ill who can do such a thing, but we do not have rational people who would even consider such an act.  There are ways of dealing with fanatical terrorists, but doing so will require, at some point along the path, people who will sell out and are willing to risk everything .


"I see emerging economies in asia, primarily China acting as huge commodity and raw material vaccuums converting themselves into manufacturing giants. Giants that are not encumbered by our over-litigation, over-regulation, environmental concerns etc...
Creating huge strains on costs and even supplies of raw materials and food stuffs."

    Here I have to differ here.  China is already showing signs of "middle class" syndrome.  That is not a bad term.  I use it to characterize changes in attitude where people begin to act as individuals or small groups to promote interests that they hold dear.  You will see environmentalists and litigation in China soon enough.  As people become freer and feel that they have something to loose, their willingness to fight for what they have or what they want increases.  In no more than 10-15 years, you will see China mirror this country, such is the consequence of industralization.  I was stunned several months ago to see a photo that was taken at a train station in China during the first SARS epidemic there.  The people standing around in lines and groups just might as well have been at a station in the US, the expressions on their faces, their luggage and their dress were very much like what I sometimes see here, abeit in airports.