Probably the war mongerers who love to use Afghanistan as their shining example of what a great humanitarian job the Bush administration is doing in Afghanistan after "liberating" the Afghan people from Taliban rule, and promising a "Marshall plan" to help the country recover, DON'T KNOW THAT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION DIDN'T HAVE A SINGLE DIME IN IT FOR POST-TALIBAN RECONSTRUCTION!!!

That's right folks. Not a dime. Of course, none of the US news outlets would be able to tell you that. They are too busy with their "Showdown Iraq" programming for February sweeps month. So it took the BBC and other international news agencies to bring the facts to the attention of the US Congress.

Here is an article from BBC on it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2759789.stm

And this blurb from Reuters on some of the Senator's responses to the wee oversight:

Senators Rap Bush on Commitment to Afghanistan (Reuters)

Feb. 12 - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saying the world was watching the U.S. commitment to post-Taliban Afghanistan as a sign of what would happen in post-Saddam Iraq, key senators on Wednesday criticized the Bush administration for glossing over difficulties it still faces in Afghanistan. The chairman and top Democrat of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said the administration appeared to be losing interest in Afghanistan, even as neighboring countries vied for influence over regional warlords and Afghan President Hamid Karzai struggled to establish a central government. "I find a sense of quietude about this, as the ranking member pointed out, a sliding almost off the radar screen of the situation," Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, told administration officials after they gave fairly upbeat assessments of progress in Afghanistan.