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OT Strike Two, BushCo
IRAQ
Strike Two This morning, President Bush will make the second of three planned speeches on Iraq prior to the December 15 elections -- part of what the Associated Press deems a "public relations campaign" meant to "shore up slumping public support for the war." His address today will focus on reconstruction and Iraq's economy. But rather than reassuring Americans that he recognizes the reality of the challenges we face in Iraq, he plans to tout purported economic progress and "to highlight rebuilding of electrical plants, schools, hospitals and businesses." President Bush is ignoring the big picture. Iraq's reconstruction -- a behemoth effort on par with the post-World War II Marshall Plan -- is simply not achieving its goals. Iraq's economy remains weak and beset by unemployment; basic necessities like potable water and sewage treatment are scarce; and there remains little evidence that the Bush administration is prepared to shift course to reverse these trends. ECONOMIC WOES: President Bush is expected to point today to Iraq's per capita gross domestic product, which "rose to $942 in 2004 and is expected to rise to more than $1,000 this year," as a sign of the country's economic progress. But as Brookings Institution scholar Michael O'Hanlon argues, "Growing GDP is good for those with access to the twin golden rivers flowing through Iraq - not the Tigris and Euphrates, but oil revenue and foreign aid. The rest of the economy is, on the whole, weak." Unemployment rates hover near 40 percent, meaning "the insurgency will always find fresh recruits," in Sen. Joseph Biden's (D-DE) words. And as "the money runs out on the $30 billion American-financed reconstruction of Iraq, the officials in charge cannot say how many planned projects they will complete, and there is no clear source for the hundreds of millions of dollars a year needed to operate the projects that have been finished." Moreover, serious challenges remain: "In its September World Economic Outlook, the IMF also notes that Iraq's new government 'faces daunting medium-term challenges, including advancing the reconstruction of the country's infrastructure, reducing macroeconomic instability and developing the institutions that can support a market-based economy.'" INFRASTRUCTURE WOES: U.S. goals for electricity and oil infrastructure reconstruction have not been met. State Department figures show that power generation, "currently at 4,600 megawatts, has only recently exceeded the prewar level of 4,400 megawatts. That's still shy of the 6,000 megawatt objective stated by the Coalition Provisional Authority in September 2003." Most Iraqis continue to have only intermittent access to electricity, and typically "for just half the day." Daily oil production in Iraq is currently around 2.14 million barrels -- not only "less than the average 2.5 million barrels before the 2003 Iraq War," but down to the lowest levels in a decade, according to the London-based Center for Global Energy. "The sluggish production is due to pipeline attacks by insurgents, poor infrastructure, and lack of refineries." WHITE HOUSE WILL NOT KEEP PROMISES TO IRAQIS: Last month, Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, reported that the "administration promises to use $18 billion Congress allocated to rebuild water, electricity, health and oil networks to prewar levels or better are running into cold reality. 'We are going to provide something less than that,' he said." This position is reflected in last week's "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq." In what the Washington Post called "a striking rollback from an earlier, more optimistic position, the [strategy] says Iraq has the 'potential' to become prosperous and self-sustaining -- without specifying a time frame." (This contradicts statements by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz is 2003 that Iraq's oil revenues "could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years. ... We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.") These are the harsh facts faced by millions of ordinary Iraqis "who are trying to live a more normal life with the curse of Saddam Hussein taken away, but with a terrible disappointment of the expectations that the removal of Saddam Hussein generated have not been lived up to." IGNORING LINK BETWEEN SECURITY AND RECONSTRUCTION: The "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" released last week ignores the direct link between security and reconstruction. Loathe to acknowledge the heavy impact of widespread insurgent violence, the White House document states that "Iraq is struggling to reach its economic potential due largely to decades of dictatorship and neglect." This is misleading. After three years and billions of dollars worth of reconstruction efforts, it is no longer appropriate to lay the blame for Iraq's economic woes on the imprisoned tyrant. The prime cause of current reconstruction woes is the Iraq insurgency, which is not being countered effectively by the president's current military strategy. Stuart Bowen's report noted that "more than a quarter of all reconstruction funds had been spent on security costs to protect contractors, hundreds of whom have died in Iraq." And as long as Bush administration refuses to shift our military strategy, both Iraq's economy and security will suffer. As the International Crisis Group has pointed out, "Economic hardship and violence (political and criminal) feed on each other: heightened popular dissatisfaction and unemployment swell insurgent ranks and the growing insurgency further hampers development. Without genuine reconstruction and a sustained recovery plan, any political success will be short-lived." |
OT: A home run for Kevin
wrote in message oups.com... IRAQ snip Kevin, once again congratulations on yet another well written editorial. Although I disagree with your assumptions, conclusions and theories the piece was very well written and did not contain the words idiot or stupid even once. It also was free of vulgar language and personal insults. Nice job Kevin! Keep it up. ;0( |
OT: A home run for Kevin
*JimH* wrote: wrote in message oups.com... IRAQ snip Kevin, once again congratulations on yet another well written editorial. Although I disagree with your assumptions, conclusions and theories the piece was very well written and did not contain the words idiot or stupid even once. It also was free of vulgar language and personal insults. Nice job Kevin! Keep it up. ;0( I'm not Kevin, idiot. |
OT: A home run for Kevin
*JimH* wrote: wrote in message oups.com... IRAQ snip Kevin, once again congratulations on yet another well written editorial. Although I disagree with your assumptions, conclusions and theories the piece was very well written and did not contain the words idiot or stupid even once. It also was free of vulgar language and personal insults. Nice job Kevin! Keep it up. ;0( By the way, when are YOU going to stop the personal insults? Again, your childish nature is showing. You think it quite all right for someone that is in your circle jerk to lie about others, use vulgar language, personal insults, bring someone's mother into a discussion, etc. But when it happens to you, you cry like a baby. Why is it that YOU, Jim, could pose a question to me in a manner that would make someone think that you know something about a certain behavior, and then when I do the EXACT same thing to you, you whine, and cry and threaten to sue? Why is that Jim? |
OT: A home run for Kevin
Kevin,
Did JimH make a personal insult by calling you by the name you use on your email? If so, why did you bother to use that name in your email? wrote in message ups.com... *JimH* wrote: wrote in message oups.com... IRAQ snip Kevin, once again congratulations on yet another well written editorial. Although I disagree with your assumptions, conclusions and theories the piece was very well written and did not contain the words idiot or stupid even once. It also was free of vulgar language and personal insults. Nice job Kevin! Keep it up. ;0( By the way, when are YOU going to stop the personal insults? Again, your childish nature is showing. You think it quite all right for someone that is in your circle jerk to lie about others, use vulgar language, personal insults, bring someone's mother into a discussion, etc. But when it happens to you, you cry like a baby. Why is it that YOU, Jim, could pose a question to me in a manner that would make someone think that you know something about a certain behavior, and then when I do the EXACT same thing to you, you whine, and cry and threaten to sue? Why is that Jim? |
OT Strike Two, BushCo
"Lord Reginald Smithers" Ask me about my driveway leading up to my manor. wrote in message ... Harry, I have to admit, this is one of your better insult post. It SHOWED real creativity, instead of just high school insults. Keep up the good work. "Harry Krause" wrote in message ... wrote: IRAQ Strike Two This morning, President Bush will make the second of three planned speeches on Iraq prior to the December 15 elections Hey, if we've made so much progress there, how come Bush's supporters in this newsgroup aren't signing up for civilian rebuilding jobs over there? I can see them now: NOYB working as a dentist in one of the torture prisons, drilling holes in prisoner teeth without benefit of anesthetics... Fritz lecturing Muslim women that removing their chador and roosari in public is a "liebral" sin, punishable their choice of being pelted with stones or having sex with him. (Survey says, 101% chose stoning)... Smithers repeatedly insulting ayatollahs as they continue to remove his skin... The Rev. JimH trying to convert Iraqis to fundie Christianity, with the promise that he's got 72 former virgins lined up as soon as their open sores heal... Robbins...hmmm...Robbins running a database program that counts how many times he screams as a hot wire is inserted into what's left of his penis...by US Marines insulted by his claim that he's one of them... Jackoff...jacking off. What else? John Herring driving a bright yellow jet fuel truck from the refineries to the Baghdad airport, and almost making it until the payload of an RPG passes through one ear, rattles around, and exits by the other ear, leaving him no more empty-headed than previously so that he can wave the "Bush 2008" Flag. |
OT: A home run for Kevin
Lord Reginald Smithers wrote: Kevin, Did JimH make a personal insult by calling you by the name you use on your email? If so, why did you bother to use that name in your email? I'm not Kevin, you dolt. And I don't use that name in my email. Got it? |
OT: A home run for Kevin
wrote in message ups.com... *JimH* wrote: wrote in message oups.com... IRAQ snip Kevin, once again congratulations on yet another well written editorial. Although I disagree with your assumptions, conclusions and theories the piece was very well written and did not contain the words idiot or stupid even once. It also was free of vulgar language and personal insults. Nice job Kevin! Keep it up. ;-( By the way, when are YOU going to stop the personal insults? Again, your childish nature is showing. You think it quite all right for someone that is in your circle jerk to lie about others, use vulgar language, personal insults, bring someone's mother into a discussion, etc. Cite a few examples Kevin. I would especially like to see the vulgar language ones. So when is your next op ed to be published here? |
OT: A home run for Kevin
*JimH* wrote: wrote in message ups.com... *JimH* wrote: wrote in message oups.com... IRAQ snip Kevin, once again congratulations on yet another well written editorial. Although I disagree with your assumptions, conclusions and theories the piece was very well written and did not contain the words idiot or stupid even once. It also was free of vulgar language and personal insults. Nice job Kevin! Keep it up. ;-( By the way, when are YOU going to stop the personal insults? Again, your childish nature is showing. You think it quite all right for someone that is in your circle jerk to lie about others, use vulgar language, personal insults, bring someone's mother into a discussion, etc. Cite a few examples Kevin. I would especially like to see the vulgar language ones. So when is your next op ed to be published here? Are you denying that you've posted lies about me?? Really? Are you denying that you've positioned questions to me, that when someone else reads them, they would tend to think that you had some evidence of something afoul, and then when I do EXACTLY the same thing, you cry like a baby, and threaten to take legal action? Are you denying that? Are you denying that Fritz uses fould language, and personal insults, and you don't ever say a thing about it. But if someone that isn't in your circle jerk club does it, you cry foul? Are you denying that? Are you denying that months ago, you said terrible, untrue, things about my mother here? Are you denying that? What it boils down to is your childish position that you and your buddies can do it, but when it comes back to bite you in the ass, you whine and cry about it. Grow up. I can give examples of any and all of the above proving that you are incredibly one sided. |
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