For the first time, a major U.S. contractor has dropped out of the multibillion-dollar effort to rebuild Iraq, raising new worries about the country’s growing violence and its effect on reconstruction.Contrack International Inc., the leader of a partnership that won one of 12 major reconstruction contracts awarded this year, cited skyrocketing security costs in reaching a decision with the U.S. government last month to terminate work in Iraq.
You don’t hear a lot of comparisons to Germany and Japan anymore, do you. With the neocons starting to scramble around to make sure that Rumsfeld takes the blame for the situation in Iraq, big contractors pulling out and the level of violence failing to abate, I find it difficult to believe that Americans are going to maintain even the lukewarm level of support for the Iraqi adventure that they have hitherto expressed.