Article

2005-05-14 Iraq-Jordan

Iraqis soldier on without power, water, jobs, sewers

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Posted by Fred 2005-05-14 13:39|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 The report is crap. They have more power generation now in terms of MWs than pre-invasion. The large metropolitan (Baghdad, Mosul, Bosra, etc.) have expanded and fully operational H20 treatement and Waste Water Treatment plants at high availability and reliability. Lets not forget the major port and waterway rehabilitation, the renovation and modernization of the railroad and rebuilding of all major bridges. The infrastructure is there and working. There are also more cell phones working now than pre-invasion as well as more businesses and small enterprises operating. Then you have all the new media - print and electronic. But then the report is 2004 and based on interviews. Think about the poll results you would get if you asked people in Florida after the hurricans about electricity, water and transportation effectiveness.

Posted by Jack is Back!">Jack is Back! 2005-05-14 14:00|| 2005-05-14 14:00|| Front Page Top

#2 If you look for the worst, expecting to find it, you surely will.*

*UN motto, yes?

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2005-05-14 15:27|| 2005-05-14 15:27|| Front Page Top

#3 They mention The Lancet's 100,000 death count but fail to note how absurdly flawed The Lancet's methods were:
http://www.chicagoboyz.net/archives/002543.html

They note the deaths of 24,000 Iraqis "including many children" but then wait three paragraphs to say that "About 12 per cent of those were under 18". Do they think 12 percent is shockingly high? It is actually shockingly low! 51 percent of the population is 19 or under! See the last table here:
http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbsum.pl?cty=IZ

And how does 24,000 dead compare to the 400,000 dead unearthed from Saddam's mass graves to date? It appears to me that Saddam's thugocracy was on average putting about 15,000 to 20,000 people a year into mass graves -- for over 20 years! And his supporters continue their homicidal rage to this very day.
http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/legacyofterror.html

This report is yet another piece of UN crap. We need to stop funding this crap.

Posted by Tom 2005-05-14 16:30|| 2005-05-14 16:30|| Front Page Top

#4 This report is indeed heavily flawed. What was the cut-off date, April 2004? October, 2004? It can't have been any time in the last three months.
According to Arthur Chrenkoff, almost 2,000 megawatts of new electrical production has come online in the last month. Construction continues on more than a dozen additional power plants that will increase electrical generating capacity to three times prewar level. There are almost 700 sewer and sanitation projects in the works, and another 400+ water projects, ranging from new wells to city water supply products for Basra, Mosul, and Tikrit. One of the biggest problems slowing development in Iraq is the constant barrage of assaults from the old Baathists and Al-Qaida.

Another question the UN failed to ask is how many of that 24,000 were killed by terrorists and their IEDs, VBIEDs, and just plain murder. BIG questions that weren't asked, or at least not reported. The UN strikes again - from the back, with poor aim and no judgment.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2005-05-14 16:58|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2005-05-14 16:58|| Front Page Top

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