Strange way to win hearts and minds

Despite public statements after the Abu Ghraib scandal indicating that the United States would reduce the Iraqi prison population, the Brookings Iraq Index released this week shows it has more than doubled since June 2004 (pdf report, see p. 17). There are now around 15,000 Iraqi prisoners held by U.S. and Allied forces, in addition to those held by the local authorities. Compare that to the estimated size of the insurgency, between 15,000 and 20,000, and that gives an indication of how wide the net has been cast.

Meanwhile, the WaPo reports that Bush scaled back funding for groups building civil society and democratic institutions in Iraq. For all the rhetoric about winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis through democratization and increased self-governance, security projects are growing ever more prominent in the nation-building equation. 

As reconstruction projects continue to go unfunded in order to pay for training and equipping of Iraqi security forces, commitment to building infrastructure in the country seems to be waning. This could represent a refinement in strategy aimed at boosting stability, but to me it appears more likely that the retrenchment anticipates riding out the next two years and dumping the situation on whomever comes next.