Little Green Footballs

Sunday, April 09, 2006

More fables of the reconstruction

"The 'good news' never gets reported" cry the chickenhawks and warmongers. Well, perhaps if there was some it would help. The reconstruction of Iraq is supposedly the 'noble cause'. So why the hell is it grinding to a halt at the cost of American and coalition lives? The answer.....we're turning Iraq into one bloody big prison.

In their makeshift offices in a former Baghdad palace, a small army of American builders and engineers, oilmen and budgeteers is working overtime on last-minute projects to help reconstruct Iraq.

Their time is running short, their money running out.

After three years in which the U.S. government allocated more than $20 billion for Iraq reconstruction, a bill now making its way through Congress adds only $1.6 billion this year, just $100 million of it for construction - not for building schools or power stations, but for prisons.

[...]

The ambitions of 2003, when President Bush spoke of making Iraq's infrastructure "the best in the region," have given way to the shortfalls of 2006, in electricity and water supply, sanitation, health facilities and oil production. A University of Maryland poll in January found strong majorities of Iraqis hopeful about their country's future in general, but only one in five thought the Americans had done a good job on reconstruction.

Even after billions were spent on power plants and substations, electricity generation still hasn't regained the level it had before the U.S. invasion of 2003. When Fallon's experts keep the lights burning late, they're relying on emergency U.S. generators in their "Green Zone" enclave, since the rest of Baghdad gets power only a few hours a day.

Barely one-third of the water-treatment projects the Americans planned will be completed. Only 32 percent of the Iraqi population has access to clean drinking water now, compared with 50 percent before the war, according to the U.S. special inspector-general for Iraq reconstruction.

About 19 percent of Iraqis today have working sewer connections, compared with 24 percent before 2003.

Of more than 150 planned health clinics, only 15 have been completed, under a contract ending this month.

Oil production, meanwhile, has stagnated, averaging 2.05 million barrels a day in mid-March, short of the 2.5 million-a-day U.S. goal, and far short of Iraq's production peak of 3.7 million in the 1970s. Fewer than one-quarter of the rehabilitation projects for the oil industry have been completed.
Taken from the AP Wire

6 comments:

Bobby Dazzler said...

Boy, you sure like your strawmen eh?

How about addressing the post? How about you explain to us how despite promising the reconstruction and democratization of Iraq, the Bush regime and its allies has failed even the most basic needs of the Iraqi people?

Bobby Dazzler said...

So, you haven't got an answer.

So, you're admitting by posting moronic meaningless pap that the 'noble cause' of rebuilding Iraq and democratizing the region is failing miserably?

It's not a case here of being pro-Saddam (nobody in their right mind is). The case is that the USA and her allies went to war on disputed evidence, promised all kinds of things and is failing to live up to even the most basic needs of the Iraqi people. What a way to win hearts and minds. What does it say about the 'noble cause' if it is delivering worse water, electricity, health care, education etc etc than a blood thirsty dictator like Saddam?

Bobby Dazzler said...

No you cretin it doesn't. It says that despite promising much, post invasion policy (hey we don't even have to point out the holes in pre-invasion policy) was flawed. Flawed to the extent that it has been to the detriment of the Iraqi populace. Flawed to the extent that people are seeing more and more shortfalls in basic needs like water and electricity. Saddam was a brutal bloody dictator, and no-one in their right mind would support him (unless we're talking the US in 80's)......you just have to stand back and admit that Iraq is a fuckup. A monumental Vietnam sized fuckup.

If you deny that you only prove two things, a) Your so blindly pro-Bush that if the man sold his soul to Satan you'd vote for him and b) You don't give a damn about Iraqis

Bobby Dazzler said...

Do you know what MM? You're a retard by LGF standards. You're so quick to build strawmen, yet too intellectually sub-normal to continue the argument beyond them.

You must be hoot at parties.

phleabo said...

moonbat's just an anti-semitie. Ignore him.

Bobby Dazzler said...

No, you're building a strawman. And making yourself look like a complete moron to boot.

PS the whole point of building a strawman is to create a different argument so that you can win. I've rarely seen someone who built a strawman lose and admit defeat. You really are special.