Many Americans are deeply disturbed about the high cost of our Iraq operations, mainly the toll of lives of dedicated people but also the enormous financial drain.

The billions of dollars involved are staggering.

Without even taking into account the horror of losing more dedicated military personnel in the venture, there is the fact that our government apparently has wasted tens of millions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction aid. Included in this waste are scores of unaccounted-for weapons and a never-used camp for housing police trainers, complete with an Olympic-size swimming pool.

Where is such money going and who is siphoning it off?

A quarterly audit by Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, is the latest of many reports to paint a sorry picture of waste, fraud and frustration in an effort that has cost taxpayers more than $300 billion.

“The security situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate, hindering progress in all reconstruction sectors and threatening the overall reconstruction effort,” according to the 579-page report, released Wednesday.

Bowen calls Iraq’s sectarian violence the greatest challenge and said in a telephone interview that billions in U.S. aid spent on strengthening security has had limited effect. Reconstruction is due to fall largely on Iraqis to manage – with millions more of our dollars involved. There is more than valid evidence they are nowhere near ready for the task. Who will note this financial bleeding and try to stop it?

President Bush is pressing Congress to approve $1.2 billion in new reconstruction aid as part of his broader plan to stabilize Iraq by sending 21,500 more U.S. troops to Baghdad and Anbar province. The threats of additional losses of life are horrible enough to contemplate, but it is compounded by the evidence of how much money has been wasted in an effort to pour sand down a rat hole that shows little prospect of ever being filled.

As long as Iraqis who say they want help continue to play both sides of the fence, indicate they are merely waiting for the United States to leave to revert to old ways and, along with some crooked Americans, continue to drain off huge chunks of money, how can new floods of money help?