Editorial: Hello, Baghdad, anyone there?

Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007 | 7:18 a.m.

Does the Iraq government exist in any real sense, or is it just a name bestowed on a few dozen officials ensconced within Baghdad's fortified Green Zone?

With the Iraqi security forces notoriously inept and often disloyal, with progress in reaching accords with sectarian factions nil, and with the nation's economy and distribution systems so fractured that millions of people are desperate for basic necessities such as food and water, the question bears asking.

The latest news about this phantom government comes from the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. This is an office, headed since 2004 by Stuart Bowen Jr., that Congress created to audit the effectiveness of U.S. spending in Iraq on infrastructure needs.

An audit released last week by the inspector general reveals just how naive President Bush's administration has been about the ability of the current Iraq government to actually govern.

Central to the U.S. reconstruction plan was the notion that once American contractors completed a sanitation facility, a flood-control project, a power plant, a police training academy or other crucial piece of infrastructure , it would be turned over to the Iraqi government.

Slowly, under this plan, Iraqis would be running their own country , and their government would be able to bring about a continuously improving standard of living.

Completed projects are often cited by the Bush administration as a sign of progress in Iraq. But Bowen's latest audit, released last week, shows that the Iraqi government has "failed to accept a single U.S.-constructed project since July 2006." So instead the projects are being turned over to local Iraqi officials , who do not have the desire or expertise to keep them in operating condition. This has cost the U.S. billions in taxpayer s' money and infinite amounts of good will from the Iraqi people.

The U.S. needs to temporarily operate any completed infrastructure until the Iraq government begins functioning. As for that Iraq government, its officials need to get out from behind the Green Zone and start leading.