Alice! Oh, Alice!

Donald Rumsfeld:

“Look, we're in a war and it’s tough, and it’s dangerous, and no one’s trying to put a smiley face on anything,” he said. “But by golly, when you've got that many Iraqis, 100,000, now providing for their own security, where you have a Governing Council and a bunch of ministers, and you have a central bank and you have a new currency, and you have all the universities and colleges open, and the hospitals are open, and there was not a humanitarian crisis — sitting around wringing your hands and saying, ‘It’s horrible, it’s horrible, everything’s terrible,’ is nonsense. It isn't all terrible. There's some darn good stuff happening.”

reality:

Of the $18.4 billion later appropriated by Congress, $11.12 billion has been "apportioned," or set aside for use. Of that, $5.3 billion has been "obligated," or bound under a binding legal agreement for specific purposes.

While that represents a doubling of U.S. financial "obligations" since April, the report acknowledged: "Actual disbursement of funds has lagged behind obligations. As of June, 22, 2004, implementing agencies have disbursed $365.5 million."

Hmmm. Why is that?

The report blames the slow pace of reconstruction on "security problems," which escalated ahead of last month's transfer of limited authority to an interim Iraqi government

Oh! And whose report?

Little of the money President Bush pledged for Iraq's reconstruction has actually been paid out, according to a White House report released on Friday.