Earlier this week, I did a blog entry on the problems doing the accounting for Iraqi reconstruction.

Now we have the extraordinary news that the Bush administration is closing down the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction which has consistently exposed corrupt practices. Blame it on some obscure clause sneaked into a military spending bill terminating the auditor's work.

If you want a taste of what the agency was producing, check the agency's website.

Craig Wiesner at Political Cortex says that closing the agency is Dilbertesque:

"So - now we have Team Bush, aided by the Republican Congress, "eliminating" the corruption in Iraq by firing the Inspector General who brought so many of the crooks to justice?"

So there is a problem with the operations? Fire the auditor!

But the failure in reconstruction some questions.

First, how can a country like America, admired and renowned for its can-do attitudes to work, screw up a project so badly? Secondly, what companies have been the big winners from this failure of accountability and inability to audit? Thirdly, does the failure and the lack of accountability explain why this war has gone so badly?

After answering those questions, you can then ask the most obvious: why are American soldiers dying there?