"Live Free or We'll Kill You"

Never worry. George W. Bush will provide a steady hand. "We will succeed in Iraq. We're carrying out a decision that has already been made and will not change: Iraq will be a free, independent country, and America and the Middle East will be safer because of it."



But with daily life on the streets of Iraq a burning hell, the Bush administration has decided to "shift" $3.5 billion dollars away from repairing the water and electrical systems that we blew up when we invaded the country and spend the money instead killing more Iraqi citizens.



Here's the Bush administration logic: only $1.1 billion of $18.4 billion in reconstruction funds has actually been spent because the ongoing war in the streets has made it unsafe for the U.S. contractors from Halliburton to get to work, and so the most reasonable thing is to take some of that money and use it to arm more Iraqis because, "without a significant reallocation of resources for the security and law enforcement sector, the short-term stability of Iraq would be compromised and the longer-term prospects of a free and democratic Iraq undermined."



"Fewer people will get potable water. Fewer people will get the electricity they need in their homes or their businesses," said Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's foreign operations subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the funds, "But that's just a recognition of the reality that unless you have the security you need, you can't have reconstruction."



In other words the Iraqis are responsible for this mess and we won't help until they fix it.



But wait, a differing opinion:



"If the shift of these funds slows down reconstruction, security may suffer in the long run," says Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.).



So maybe thirsty people living in the dark are more likely to be hostile? They might even hold a grudge against those who did this to them.



It's kind of a modern day version of colonial New Hampshire's "Live Free or Die" motto, except that the updated version is "Live Free or We'll Kill You."



Washington Post: U.S. Plans to Divert Iraq Money (washingtonpost.com)