Missing Billions?

On the one hand you have a billion or more dollars missing from Iraq's defense budget:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article313538.ece
This missing money deeply cuts into Iraq's ability to police and defend itself, resulting in the need for US troops to stay longer in Iraq.
On the other hand, you have two US contractors brutally slain in Iraq late last year after notifying officials including a Pennsylvania Republican US Senator and a Pennsylvania Republican US Representative about financial problems with their contract, warning of the concerns of graft. The Senator notified Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of the contractors' concerns. Soon after, the contractors were ambushed and killed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25285-2005Jan20.html
I was reading Baghdad Burning yesterday and came across an interesting tidbit about the Iraqi draft constitution. It seems that an article in the draft, Article (16), proposing that it would be forbidden for foreign troops to use Iraq either for military bases or as a corridor, has vanished in the final draft.
And then there's Zarqawi...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3483089.stm
Phantom of Iraq, enemy of not only America but also the Iraqi people, yet like bin Laden himself, unstoppable, uncatchable, working overtime killing Shiites to terrorize the Iraqi people, the American public, and the world into realizing the need to maintain a strong US military presence in Iraq and the Middle East.
Call it coincidence if you must, but a pattern is a pattern.