Jihad Watch: 8,080 computers, worth $1.8 million, paid for by American taxpayers, go missing in Iraq

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I've often noted the futility of such gift-giving. Attempts to win hearts and minds do not address the Islamic underpinnings of the hatred and contempt so many Muslims feel for America; a free laptop isn't going to change that. "U.S. Gift for Iraqis Offers a Primer on Corruption," by Steven Lee Myers in the New York Times, September 25 (thanks to Bill):

BAGHDAD -- The shipment of laptop computers that arrived in Iraq's main seaport in February was a small but important part of the American military's mission here to win hearts and minds. What happened afterward is a tale of good intentions mugged by Iraq's reality.

The computers -- 8,080 in all, worth $1.8 million -- were bought for schoolchildren in Babil, modern-day Babylon, a gift of the American taxpayers. Only they became mired for months in customs at the port, Umm Qasr, stalled by bureaucracy or venality, or some combination of the two. And then they were gone. [...] Read more...