The good news about Iraqi entrepeneurs

The lies and half-truths of the Bush Administration are by now old news. And since so much of what the Administration says publicly is fabricated, it's easy to let certain things go in order to get on with our lives.

Still, certain statements continue to shock and infuriate us, because we can't, for the life of us, figure out where Bush & Co. got the information on which their statements are based.

This was my reaction to the declaration by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the September 29 issue of the Wall Street Journal that "5,000 small businesses [in Iraq] have opened since liberation on May 1."

On what data, I wondered, did the Secretary base this statement? And what exactly did he mean by "small businesses"?

For a month I tried to get an answer to these questions from the US government, sadly, I must admit, without success. Below is the story--not without its comic elements--of my minor quest for truth....  article

John Brown is a former diplomat who resigned over the Iraq war.

I posted earlier on Iraqi businessmen's concerns about foreign competitors setting up shop. They were essentially told that if they couldn't cut the mustard, it was their tough luck.

And, I must commiserate with Dr. Brown on the response he received to his letter to the pResident. That's the same kind of non-answer bullcrap I get every time I write to a congressperson. A restatement of their position, which you knew damned well before you sent your query, which didn't get answered. I have just such a form letter from Senator Talent that I have been meaning to follow up on. I thought I'd send him another letter thanking him for his nonresponse and suggesting that, now I have been reminded of his political stance on the issue, we get down to real correspondence. I wonder what kind of letter I can expect back. Any bets that it will be an exact duplicate of the one I'm already holding?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.