Now That Totally Belongs on an Inside Page

<p>Remember all that stuff about benchmarks in Iraq? And how&mdash;huzzah!&mdash;the Iraqi government had spent nearly 25 percent of its 2007 capital budget on reconstruction? The White House does, for two reasons: first, the U.S. has mostly <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/02/AR2006010200370.html">given up</a> on large-scale reconstruction projects, preferring to kick that can to the Iraqis; and second, reconstruction is a sign of improved security, something the Bush administration is desperate to portray. So, huzzah again: almost a quarter of the Iraqi budget has gone to reconstruction, quoth the White House, the surge has worked, etc.</p>

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<p>Only there&rsquo;s one problem: that figure was bogus.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Walter Pincus <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011604009.html?wpisrc=_rssworld/mideast/iraq">reports</a> that the Government <span style="font-family: Arial;">Accountability</span> Office studied the White House-promoted claim and discovered that the real figure is <i>4.4 percent</i>. Kind of a big difference, no? Well, not if you&rsquo;re an anonymous State Department official desperate to spin a veteran reporter away from a real story. Says that official: <em class="quote">

<p>The real test is: Are we seeing the effects of these capital expenditures on the ground? And we are seeing it,&quot; he said. &quot;Services are being delivered [and the] slow, downward spiral of worsening services has stopped and is starting to come back.&quot; Delivery of services, he said, is &quot;our number one goal&quot; in Iraq for 2008.</p>

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<p>Luckily for that official, Pincus&rsquo;s editors decided to run a story of such importance on page. Not like this is about a war or anything.</p>

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