Iraq Reconstruction

The cascade of troubling developments in Iraq has posed an extraordinary test of President Bush's leadership, forcing him to do several things that do not come easily to him. Although the hallmarks of his administration have been loyalty, discipline and doggedness, Bush in recent days has openly criticized a top lieutenant, changed course on troop levels and funding in Iraq and been subjected to a new spate of dissent from fellow Republicans in Congress.

The escalation of violence in Iraq this month is curtailing the pace of U.S. government-financed reconstruction, but both contractors and U.S. officials maintained Thursday that the disruption so far has been relatively minor. Tom Wheelock, director of infrastructure for the U.S. Agency for International Development, said at a news briefing here that 90% of all projects were moving forward. Privately, however, some contractors say the situation is far from normal.

The rising cost of security is hobbling the effort to rebuild Iraq, resulting in cutbacks to projects, delays in construction and fewer benefits for the Iraqi people, according to industry executives and government officials. As Iraqi insurgents have increasingly targeted civilian contractors, companies have responded by enhancing private security forces and moving more cautiously in dangerous areas. At the same time, the U.S.

In an unusual public criticism by one of the United States' staunchest allies, the president of Poland said Thursday that he had been "misled" about Iraq's alleged stocks of banned weapons before the war.

Pentagon investigators have found evidence that Vice President Dick Cheney's former company may have overcharged the Army as much as $61 million for fuel that it trucked into Iraq, senior defense officials said Thursday. The overcharges by Halliburton Co.

Reopening their central prewar divide with President Bush, all of the major Democratic presidential candidates are urging him to cede to the international community authority for devising a path to Iraqi self-government. As the U.S.-led effort to forge a new government in Iraq continues to struggle, the leading Democrats argue that Iraqis are more likely to accept the process if it is designed by the United Nations or another international body.

The Senate on Monday gave final congressional approval to the biggest foreign aid expenditure in U.S. history, a bill that will give President Bush most of the money he wants for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. And that's not all it will do. While attention has focused on the support for rebuilding Iraq, the $87.5-billion bill also includes an array of provisions that underscore the breadth -- and cost -- of U.S. commitments around the world.

There has been much talk in recent weeks about President Bush's apparent determination to change course in Iraq. Exhibit One is his decision, reiterated in Tuesday's speech to the United Nations, to seek a new U.N. resolution encouraging other countries to contribute troops and money to the Iraq reconstruction effort. The White House, it appears, has finally recognized that it cannot succeed on its own in Iraq. But a closer analysis of Bush's argument to the U.N.

President Bush's request to spend more than $20 billion to rebuild Iraq's sewers, power lines and other domestic facilities is meeting resistance from an unexpected source -- Republicans in Congress, who have been among the staunchest allies of the administration's foreign policy. The GOP lawmakers are demanding that some of the money be repaid by Iraq or be provided by allies who also stand to gain from stabilizing the region.

After months of arrogant defiance, the Bush administration finally is turning to the United Nations for help with the Iraqi occupation. Bush officials must seize this fleeting moment to revise their dismissive, haphazard approach to postwar Iraq and instead press a U.N. resolution to bring in international forces and the global community to turn around a situation that drifts, by the day, toward disaster.