The $36 billion U.S. government telethon for Iraq’s reconstruction isn’t going so well. Just over a third of that money has been pledged so far, and that’s counting the EU, Britain, and Japan. The president can suck up to Australia all he wants, but given that their GDP is about one-seventh the size of Japan’s (contribution: $5 billion, mostly loans, through 2008), where the war was much less controversial, it ain’t gonna help.
How long before Dubya’s trick-or-treating at Tonga’s doorstep?
