Bush ignored Iraq corruption: Two ex-State Dept. guys spill the beans

File this under, "Well, DUH." Just out on the AP newswire is this late-night tidbit:

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration repeatedly ignored corruption at the highest levels within the Iraqi government and kept secret potentially embarrassing information so as not to undermine its relationship with Baghdad, according to two former State Department employees.

More @ jump.

According to the AP article (link above), one of the two State Department employees was Arthur Brennan, who--irony of ironies--headed the Office of Accountability and Transparency. The other was chief of staff James Mattil.

The two gave the Democrats in the Senate details about understaffing, underfunding, and covering up the fact that employees were sitting around watching movies while a Congressional aide visiting Baghdad (who was not allowed to talk with OAT staffers) was given the impression that the employees were overworked.

Brennan said to the Senate Democratic Policy Committee that the U.S. Embassy's "effort against corruption — including its new centerpiece, the now-defunct Office of Accountability and Transparency — was little more than 'window dressing.'"

This, however, was the most depressing part of the story (bolding mine):

Sen. Byron Dorgan, head of the Democratic Policy Committee, said the testimony was critical in light of upcoming legislation that would appropriate more than $170 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate Appropriations Committee, of which Dorgan is a member, is expected to approve the legislation Thursday.

"It is a cruel irony if we are appropriating money next Thursday or did appropriate money last month or last year and that money ends up actually providing the resources for an insurgency in Iraq which ends up killing Americans," said Dorgan, D-N.D.

Ummmmm...then why can't you guys do something about it now, and prevent more Americans from getting killed?