Talk about blaming the victim. In the first U.S. invasion of Iraq, the electricity grid was specifically targeted for destruction. Afterward, the Iraqis rebuilt the system in just three months. After the second invasion, George W. Bush had U.S. companies do the rebuilding. Two years later, the system is not even up to prewar levels.

American companies were brought in along with foreign workers -- bypassing Iraqis who had run and worked the systems for decades. Bechtel spent the first vital months in Iraq doing an assessment, not rebuilding. Bechtel finally built facilities foreign to the Iraqis who are now to run them.