The Half-Assed President

From our friends at Sadly, No!:

BAGHDAD - The Bush administration does not intend to seek any new funds for Iraq reconstruction in the budget request going before Congress in February, officials say. The decision signals the winding down of an $18.4 billion U.S. rebuilding effort in which roughly half of the money was eaten away by the insurgency, a buildup of Iraq's criminal justice system and the investigation and trial of Saddam Hussein.

[snip] ... Iraqis nationwide receive on average less than 12 hours of power a day. For residents of Baghdad, it was six hours a day last month, according to a U.S. count, though many residents say that figure is high.

So, let me see if I understand the plan here. We're not going to set a timetable or any benchmarks for when we're pulling American troops out of Iraq. Because what we used to call "operational planning" and "strategy" is now "cutting and running". But at the same time, we're not going to fix the infrastructure, so those soldiers who are there indefinitely will be the targets of increasingly large numbers of pissed-off and radicalized civilians.

Eeeeeeexcellent.

This is my main complaint with the current Administration. If they had policies I disagreed with, but actually accomplished something, I could kind of wrap my head around it. But George Bush (and this, in my useless and humble opinion, should have been the one issue of the last campaign), is the half-assed President. Was going to get Osama, never got Osama. Was going to rebuild Afghanistan, bailed out of Afghanistan. Was going to secure the Homeland, and the 9/11 Commission shows how they haven't finished the job. New Orleans was going to be rebuilt, but it ain't happening. Sent our soldiers into a war, but with no clear mission plan and not enough equipment. Now we find he was going to rebuild Iraq, and he's half-assing that. Other than massive tax cuts for the rich during war time and some really spiffy tricks in promoting people who will tell him whatever he wants to hear, he really hasn't accomplished, for better or worse, anything.

All I can say is, thank God for Dick Cheney. I sleep better knowing that there's at least one firm, if evil, hand on the wheel. I, personally, welcome our Cheney-bot Overlords.

EDIT: Hmm, must be something in the air. John at America Blog has a much more detailed, cross-linked list of half-assery.