Reply #2: Rand Corporation report on Iraq....."foreign fighters a very small percentage in Iraq" [View All]

[Postman]

http://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/2005/RAND_OP127.pdf

“A very, very small percentage of foreign fighters," Major General Odierno maintains, are responsible for the attacks on American Forces.


also....

http://www.rand.org/news/press.06/04.19.html

efforts in Iraq faltered by failing to maintain and improve basic sanitation and drinking water services in the nation's most populated areas, which added to anti-Americanism and support for the insurgency, according to the report....


IRAQ
RAND researchers say that several measurements show that nation-building efforts in Iraq moved too slowly on many health-related fronts that could have improved the daily lives of the nation's population.

In examining the situation in Iraq, the report says:

An estimated 40 percent of the water and sanitation network in Baghdad has been damaged during the conflict. Efforts to rebuild the system — aging and in frail condition before fighting began – have moved slowly, hampered by the nation's widespread security problems and looting.
A year after the major combat phase of the war in Iraq ended, Baghdad's three sewage treatment plants were still inoperable, forcing sewage to be dumped in the Tigris River and putting the nation's population at risk of communicable disease outbreaks. The sewage plants ultimately were repaired, but surveys of Iraqi citizens show that most have been unhappy with the quality of sanitation services — a sign that an opportunity to foster goodwill was lost.
There were notable health successes, including prevention of malnutrition and communicable disease outbreaks immediately after the U.S.-led invasion, and the reopening of Iraq's hospitals in the months after Saddam Hussein was overthrown.
Too many of the early efforts in health were focused on issues such as redesigning medical training programs and designing disease-tracking systems — projects that had little immediate and direct impact on the lives of most Iraqis.
Efforts to address Iraq's health needs have been significantly hurt by the nation's security problems. This has both limited the mobility of workers assigned to health projects and caused policymakers to shift funding from health to security....