Many Iraq projects may be dropped - US official

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051018/wl_nm/iraq_usa_reconstruction_dc;_ylt=AixU1GgTGgy1fnJ0qyjSDhGs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b3JuZGZhBHNlYwM3MjE-
Many Iraq projects may be dropped - US official

By Vicki Allen 26 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters)

........In the coming year money needed to operate Iraq's existing health, water, oil and electrical infrastructure and to complete planned reconstruction projects "will outstrip the available revenue," said Stuart Bowen, the U.S. special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

......Bowen also said there did not appear to be adequate planning for Iraq's long-term maintenance of its new facilities. It will cost from $650 million to $750 million annually to run the new plants and equipment built largely with U.S. funds, and more for security, salaries and fuel, he said.


Democrats pounced on Bowen's report as confirmation that the Bush administration's $30 billion effort to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure and train its security forces was failing.

"He too has concluded that there is a great chasm between what the administration has promised and what it has delivered," said Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record) of California, the committee's top Democrat..........

[rodeodance]

1. "The fox, Halliburton, is guarding the henhouse," - Kucinich

......PROMISES UNFULFILLED..........

The Bush administration promised a massive rebuilding program after the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein and said much of the cost would be born by revenues from Iraqi oil.

Waxman said Iraq's oil production was still well below levels before the invasion. Similarly electricity generation and access to clean water remained at or below pre-war levels, he said, blaming the shortfalls on the administration's noncompetitive contracts and failure to secure Iraq.

Democrats also blasted the Pentagon for not having its own auditors on the ground in Iraq to track reconstruction, but instead doing the work from Washington.

"The fox, Halliburton, is guarding the henhouse," Rep.
Dennis Kucinich of Ohio said of the biggest contractor in Iraq.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. The very minute they turn their backs or let down their guard, poof

goes the "water, oil and electrical infrastructure". Not too brilliant move disenfranchising the 20% of the population who, when they get pissed, aren't afraid to wreck havoc on everybody else. However, it's a really typical stupid american kind of "democratic" majority & money rules kind of thing to do, that works in the USA but not in Iraq.

[Gloria]

3. Yup, the "ran out of money" according to an article I posted

a few months ago....

Not to mention, most of the "projects" haven't gotten off the ground!

What a F*ckup---"Katrina of the Middle East"

[MasonJar]

4. Great! We bomb the people and their country into the Stone

Age and now we are not going to rebuild it. We sure are winners.

[hang a left]

5. Damn, is there any good news over there? n/t

[oblivious]

6. If the UN had given Iraq's 16 billion to Iraqis, this wouldn't be a prob.

It was their money. But they gave it to the US for safekeeping. Now it's disappeared. If they had used Iraqi firms instead of Haliburton they would have got 10 times more for the dollar and more Iraqis would have jobs.

Shame on the UN.
Shame on the US.
Shame on the Iraqi puppet government.

[bemildred]

7. Flush!

:hurts: