Beware of Dropping Jaws

This could be the height of Bizarroworld politics under this administration. Keep in mind that of the $30+ billion earmarked for reconstruction in Iraq, ab0ut $12-13 billion has simply vanished. The Bush solution? More, please.

An extraordinary appeal to Americans from the Bush administration for money to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq has raised only $600 (£337), The Observer has learnt. Yet since the appeal was launched earlier this month, donations to rebuild New Orleans have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars.

The public's reluctance to contribute much more than the cost of two iPods to the administration's attempt to offer citizens 'a further stake in building a free and prosperous Iraq' has been seized on by critics as evidence of growing ambivalence over that country.