Sound Familiar?

Now, nearly three years after...the buildings are still piles of debris. Electricity is terrible. Water is cut off for days at a time. Telephone lines come and go. Oil production isn’t even at pre-war levels… and Iraqis hear about the billions upon billions that come and go. A billion here for security… Five hundred million there for the infrastructure… Millions for voting… Iraq falling into deeper debt… Engineers without jobs simply because they are not a part of this political party or that religious group… And the country still in shambles.

Link.

I'll bet there are any number of Gulf Coast residents who can relate all too well. Loud talk and hot air from the administration in the aftermath of a disaster of their own making. Followed by...nothing.

And, shifting gears just a bit, check out Riverbend's previous post--Jill Carroll's translator, killed when she was kidnapped, was a friend of hers. A friend who ran a music store in Baghdad. He's gone now...forever. Folks along the Gulf Coast can probably sympathize and empathize about that, too.

You know, it'd be nice to have a government that does more than destroy things...