Fables of the Reconstruction
Some news from Iraq, first from the BBC:

Nearly 25,000 civilians have died violently in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003, a report says. Based on more than 10,000 media reports, the dossier is the first detailed account of such deaths. [...] The Iraq Body Count and Oxford Research Group, made up of academics and peace activists, carried out the survey. The Dossier on Civilian Casualties in Iraq 2003-2005 says 37% of all non-combatant deaths were caused by US-led forces. Many of these occurred during the invasion phase, which it counts as ending on 1 May 2003. But killings by anti-occupation and criminal elements also increased steadily over the entire two-year period. Insurgents are said to have caused 9% of the deaths, while post-invasion criminal violence was responsible for another 36%. The number of civilians who have died has almost doubled in the second year from the first year, according to the report.

Next, from the AP:

The United States has yet to spend almost 60 percent of its pledged $21 billion in reconstruction money for Iraq, even as the country struggles through a third summer of sporadic electricity and limited clean water. Many schools have been built, water plants started and power stations finished — especially in the relatively peaceful south. But frustration is high. [...] Iraq's ongoing violence has been one factor, both delaying projects by keeping U.S. engineers huddled on bases far from project sites and eating into the pledged American money, taking up between 20 and 23 percent of project costs, according to the Project Construction Office. In addition, billions of dollars' worth of projects await approval by the U.S. bureaucracy, and hundreds of millions are tied up in stalled contract negotiations with U.S. companies. Overall, about 58 percent of U.S. reconstruction money has not been spent, according to a federal inspector general's office.