Dubba Threat

George Bush is now offically a failure in two countries.

Detailed new reports by two independent groups offer a devastating portrait of the 16-month-old U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq, blaming ongoing violence there in large part on misplaced U.S. priorities, bureaucratic bungling and poor planning.

(snip)

The rebuilding campaign's failure to employ more Iraqis has fed guerrilla insurgencies, sparked rampant crime and led to "entrenched frustration and anger" at the U.S.-led occupation, says the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. CSIS includes a number of former diplomats and Capitol Hill workers in Republican and Democratic administrations.

CSIS interviewed U.S. civilian and military reconstruction officials, international relief experts and more than 400 Iraqis in 15 cities. Its findings were echoed in a report by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based organization that tracks conflicts around the world.

ICG says the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority committed "stunning mistakes" and left a "fragile, dysfunctional legacy" when it handed authority to an interim Iraqi government in June.

Sounds about right to me.