WP p. A01: Despite Billions Spent, Rebuilding Incomplete

[Pirate Smile]

Despite Billions Spent, Rebuilding Incomplete
Bad Security, Poor Planning Plague Effort

By Griff Witte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 12, 2006; Page A01

For a little more than $38 billion, the United States and its contractors in Iraq have provided 4.6 million people with access to water. They have distributed seeds to Iraqi farmers, improving wheat harvests. With electricity-generating capacity now above prewar levels, they have given many Iraqis more daily hours of power. They have repaired more than 5,000 schools and vaccinated 4.6 million children against polio.

The list goes on. But as the U.S.-led, U.S.-funded portion of Iraq's reconstruction nears its end, American officials and contractors alike are grappling with a cold reality: Thousands of successes in Iraq may add up to a single failure.

"We accomplished a significant amount of work. But it was just overwhelmed by the overlay of violence," said Clifford G. Mumm, who has spent much of the past three years in Iraq managing projects for Bechtel Corp. "It's hard to be very optimistic."
U.S.-funded projects have long been a target for sabotage. Many of those that were spared remain unused by a population paralyzed by violence.

Yet those inside the reconstruction effort say security concerns were hardly the only problem. Poor planning and coordination by U.S. officials meant that even successful individual projects failed to do the job; for example, health-care centers were built at great cost but had no water and sewer service. Poor work-site management by contractors meant that some projects went awry. And now that the United States is handing over reconstruction efforts to Iraq, many involved with the process worry that the Iraqis don't have the training or the money to keep U.S.-built facilities running.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/11/AR2006111101076.html

[Pirate Smile]

1. more

"Riding through the streets of the northern city of Mosul three years later, taxi driver Sattar Khalid Othman has barely noticed.

"What reconstruction?" Othman said in an interview last week. "Today we are drinking untreated water from a plant built decades ago that was never maintained. The electricity only visits us two hours a day. And now we are going backwards. We cook on the firewood we gather from the forests because of the gas shortage."

Othman's view is shared by many across the country. In interviews last week, Iraqis expressed frustration not just with the United States but with Iraqi leaders, too, for pocketing aid money that was supposed to be for everyone.

"When the occupation came and we heard the promises, we said, 'Now the conditions in the city will improve.' But things got worse," said Ahmed Mohammed, 45, a teacher in the central province of Salah al-Din. "We know that large amounts of money have been dedicated to the city, but they were all stolen."'

[Robbien]

2. The reporting on this is so infuriating

Last week the news was Bechtel & Co were leaving Iraq because they completed all their contracts. It hit all the network and cable news. Jobs all done, they are coming home.

On Sunday, the deadest news day, we hear the job is not done and the Iraqis are in despair because any hope for reconstruction is now gone.

I really hate MSM.

[Kagemusha]

3. Just bad TV reporting then

The print media accurately reported what this was: the construction equivalent of defaulting.

[Miss Chybil]

5. I would think more people read the Sunday paper than any other. nt

[LiberalFighter]

17. More DO read Sunday edition than weekday edition

That also means the story should get carried by USAToday

[shanti]

27. bechtel's pockets were lined

yes, their contracts were completed! mission accomplished! :grr: :mad: they pulled out AT THAT MOMENT because they saw the handwriting on the wall and new that pelosi et al. would hold them accountable!

[radiofreesrini]

28. send bechtel and halliburton executives to prison !!! !!! !!!

the iraq war profiteers must go to jail and stay there. months before the invasion they had CONVENTIONS to teach each other about the great business opportunity that the invasion represented. they have destroyed any possibility of positivity emerging out of bush's mess, and they did so to line their pockets, which at last check were still well insulated with taxpayer dollars. these companies are the satanic fringe of american capitalism and i want our congress to pay a LOT of attention to them over the next few weeks.

-rfs

[HaggardsMethDealer]

4. This article is grade A horseshit.

Griff Witte?

Every first person account of Iraq and all of the secret reports that have leaked have said that nothing has been accomplished. I know a few people that are over there and they tell me that the country is in chaos and no one is fixing anything.

Sounds like spoon fed bullshit propaganda, and more of the same from the Bush administration. If there is bad news, no problem....just pay a hack to write good news!! Which is exactly what got these clowns thrown out on their ass in the first place!

[Miss Chybil]

6. Why don't you reread the clip? nt

[HaggardsMethDealer]

24. I did.

And it is still horseshit. The American taxpayers were robbed. They flew large pallets of money over to Iraq and paid it out to warlords who spent it on bombs and weapons to blow up our troops. What wasn't given to warlords was given to Halliburton and Bechtel to screw our troops. NOTHING was built, and to call it "Incomplete" is a complete, flat out LIE.

[TheMadMonk]

9. Things *ARE* "accomplished", But there is neither integration, nor follow through

For whatever reasons, the efforts are too scattershot and uncoordinated for effective results. Thus health-care centers without utilities; schools with no safe access; and so on.

And I suspect that the reasons that the media (biased as it is) reports little of the accomplishments is that any reporting that rises above the level of: "In Mosul today, a new school was completed." to ask the question: "Then where are the children?"

Pick a reason, any reason for their absence. The answer is almost certainly "All of the above."

Any close scrutiny of the "Good Works" in Iraq, would reveal them as the sham they are. Great for filling out paper work and collating into statistics, but virtually worthless in a real world sense.

[Ravenseye]

13. for most of those they shouldn't even use the word "accomplished"

The health care center example for instance. Nothing was accomplished.

They've fixed 86 of 98 railway stations, but the trains hardly run because of security concerns. Nothing accomplished.

Brand new health care center husks around the country standing empty with no power, water, sewage, or doctors because of security concerns. Nothing accomplished.

They shouldn't be allowed to use the word accomplished.

[TheMadMonk]

22. I thought the final two para's would have made the Sarcasm tag superfluous

That and the " " around the word.

The "accomplishments" allow KB&R et. al. to chalk their marks on the "Rebuilding Iraq" tally board. And put their hand out for another wad of cash.

So HOW DARE you say nothing is "accomplished". It's bleeding heart liberals like you who make it difficult for great American icons to survive. HOW DARE you insist that the beneficiaries of American largess, actually benefit from the things that are done for them out of the goodness of corporate America's heart.

[Ravenseye]

25. Snort

your last paragraph made me laugh out loud this time. Sarcasm...Accomplished.

[saigon68]

10. IT is "spoon fed bullshit propaganda"

And the corporations after skimming billions are FAT AS PIGS

[Ravenseye]

12. grade A would be generous

It's not even good horseshit...

You're right though. I have family over there and while we've gotten many out, there are some still there, living in hellish conditions.

[mom cat]

7. Rec #5. This porkbarrel must be investigated.

[GOTV]

8. Electricity is above pre-war levels?

Last time Condi visited they couldn't even keep the lights on for her.

I'm skeptical of that statement at least.

[exlrrp]

11. Expect more focus on ths type of thing

We've spent--according to tbeis article--$38 billion in Iraq just for reconstruction and we have no acccounting for it at all. They "Party of Accountability" has rendered themselves completely unaccountable.
This is what has to change. We speak in grand numbers but we never see evidence of what really happened. There are no TV reporters going out to these sites, they just repeat the meme. I think the truth is a lot worse than you see here, I think about 95% of that money found itself into crooked hands, much of it went to AlQaeda, no doubt. This also doesn't take into account all those shrinkwrapped millions they found--whatever happened to all that? Its not just laying around, you can bet. CBS 60 minutes had a thing on $800 million in phony arms procuring--this is the tip of the iceberg.
There's more than $38 Billion to think about, over $400 Billion wasted in just Iraq so far.
Time to find out were all that money went.
The first thing the Democrats are going to look at is military spending and, unfortunately this is going to look very VERY bad for the previous people in chjarge of the Congress, very bad (giggle) And the present occupant of the White House too (giggle again)
This is going to be fun to watch, I'm popping the pocorn now.

[gratuitous]

14. In terms this corrupt administration might understand

You can't cross the Grand Canyon in two jumps.

[intheflow]

15. Thought from the title this was about the Gulf Coast.

Oh, well. Good article anyway

[wryter2000]

16. Huh?

With electricity-generating capacity now above prewar levels, they have given many Iraqis more daily hours of power.

That ain't what I've been hearing? Did I miss something?

[FreeStateDemocrat]

18. Bechtel family says: AMF suckers $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[durtee librul]

19. Oh but wait......

isn't the grand embassy finished? Doesn't it have sewer, lights, water?

DUH!!!! Something was accomplished alright - the public (both Iraqi and US) got f*d royally by Halliburton and KBR.

Congress had better ask for an accounting of every thin dime spent over there and I bet it they can't do it.

I asked in another thread if the Sabanes Oxley act would apply here at all....or is this all under the 'anything goes in wartime?' mantra?

Just wondering.

[carincross]

20. Read Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily on Bechtel Departure

Dahr and Ali report that the Iraqis now know that reconstruction is over. Bechtel is leaving with tons of taxpayer money, having done nothing substantial to help the Iraqis rebuild their country. Iraqis feel betrayed. So should US taxpayers. It's time for subpoenas and accountability.

http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/iraq/000491.php

[Black Adder]

21. Rebuilding Iraq - another

Mission accomplished!!!!

[LuckyLib]

23. Between $$$ in the US corporate coffers, and $$ that went missing among the "little

people" inside Iraq, has anybody checked offshore and Swiss bank accounts lately for Iraqi leadership accounts? Or is that all "private" information . . .

[shanti]

26. "...building incomplete"

of course it's incomplete! the money wasn't spent on rebuilding!!!!! :banghead: