Despite $2 billion spent, residents say Baghdad is crumbling

[sabra]

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http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/special_packages/iraq/12219341.htm

Despite $2 billion spent, residents say Baghdad is crumbling

Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Talib Abu Younes put his lips to a glass of tap water recently and watched worms swimming in the bottom.

Electricity flickers on and off for two hours in Muthana Naim's south Baghdad home then shuts off for four in boiling July heat that shoots above 120 degrees.

Fadhel Hussein boils buckets of sewage-contaminated water from the Tigris River to wash the family's clothes.
The capital is crumbling around angry Baghdadis. Narrow concrete sewage pipes decay underground and water pipes leak out more than half the drinking water before it ever reaches a home, according to the U.S. military.

Over 18 months, American officials spent almost $2 billion to revive the capital ravaged by war and neglect, according to Army Gen. William G. Webster, who heads the 30,000 U.S. and foreign troops and 15,000 Iraqi soldiers known collectively as Task Force Baghdad. But the money goes for long-term projects that yield few visible results and for security to protect the construction sites from sabotage.

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[TomClash]

1. Hey, Now!

It's the profits that count, not the expenditure of your money!

:crazy:

[Hobarticus]

2. Meanwhile, US propaganda asserts that a coat of paint is "rebuilding"

Oh yes, we're rebuilding schools...slap a quick coat of paint on 'em, and they're good as new. Only costs a few mil to paint a small schoolhouse, even!

[AuntiBush]

6. How 'bout them Swimming Pools in the UPPER-CRUSTED

Green zones, namely Halliburton.

[NNN0LHI]

14. Check out the swimming pool for this Afghan warlord our tax dollars bought

http://www.cursor.org/stories/afghaniscam.html

[AuntiBush]

16. Oh Jeez... that's better then the 1 I seen last week. O.M.G.

Meanwhile, the rest of our "real troops" are stifling in the hot desert amid car bombings. Must be nice to be in the super-$$$-green zone, huh.

Sick! Madness! http://www.evilgopbastards.com/ says it for me.

[leftchick]

19. another fucking saddam palace eh?

wrong country but the same actors. :puke:

[truthisfreedom]

3. spreading Democracy! woohoo! seriously, these people need some water

filtration and purification kits. i purchased a small portable kit (fits in a jacket pocket) from REI that will process many hundreds of gallons of water from ANY source (mud puddle). it's simple and fast.

[AuntiBush]

4. Yeah. Where in the Hell is all that money going?

Who benefits? I think *here* we know the answer, and I'm hearing people ask the same question a-lot more w/each passing week off *here*.

[hobbit709]

9. most "reconstruction"

is probably in the "green zone" so that all those carpetbaggers and thieves can have all their American comforts.

[AuntiBush]

18. That's how it certainly appears by all reports.

No wonder they don't want too many real reporters in there and so many have been mysteriously shot. Makes one want to :puke: Good call hobbit709.

[TahitiNut]

13. Probably $1.6 billion went for "studies" and "plans" and "consultation".

It's astounding how much can be eaten up by the Project Office and their contractors without a single ounce of paint or concrete ever being used.

[AuntiBush]

17. Contractors. Hmmm.. Halliburton, Lockheed-Martin, Bechtel.

Yeah. See what you mean. TahitiNut, you nailed it right on the head. Maybe if we keep repeating it till our fingers fall off and our tongues go dry, other's might "get-it!"

Thanks for the reply! :hi:

[chelsea0011]

5. It depends on what you mean by the word "spent"

It appears billions is just a handout to U.$. business interests.

[NeoConsSuck]

25. Bingo!

This whole charade is nothing but the American taxpayer funding the growth of capitalism in an emerging market (Iraq).

[jojo54]

7. Well now, we can't split hairs between the words

spent and stolen, can we?

[Bark Bark Bark]

8. Say, Whatever Happened To The "Truth" Tour?

You know, all the Wrong-Wingers who were gonna go to Baghdad and report back the "truth" to counter all this Left-Wing spin (AKA reality). I was honestly looking forward to them drinking the water.

Or turning the corner too fast and "running" a checkpoint full of triggerhappy troops... (mmmmmm smells like bacon)

[existentialist]

23. Truth tour

I heard one obscure report that almost nobody seemed to carry, but I think they left for Iraq just about the time the Rove Story hit, and there they were in Iraq missing out on all the news . . .

The report that I read covered so little substantively that I can well understand why nobody seemed to carry it.

[donco6]

28. Yes, I was waiting for their report.

Did they ever go?

[Barrett808]

31. That project does seem to have disappeared from the radar

I would like to have heard their opinions after the quick visit.

[LaurenG]

10. I am so sorry for Iraq

I wish that the maker of war wasn't such a selfish creature. :cry:

[babylonsister]

11. Check out Halliburton's pockets. I'm sure a substantial

amouont of that $2 billion can be found there. :mad:

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. Would freepers say that this isn't true?

Would they say this is anti-bush propaganda? What will they say when the population rises up against the occupation and throws them out?

[struggle4progress]

15. Another demolition by Bush & Sons Wrecking Company. eom

[peacebird]

20. I'm quite certain the Green Zone is not "crumbling"

That's where the money is spent, good grief - what? Those ungrateful Iraqi's expect their conquerors to live with anything less than the best? Hell - we gave them FREEDOM, and they want electricity, & clean water? Ungrateful bastards!

:sarcasm:

[Massachusetts]

21. Hey Now!

Thats just Ducky!

[daleo]

22. I guess if you spend $200 billion wrecking a place

And $2 billion fixing it, it might well be described as crumbling.

[existentialist]

24. ("Aeronautical engineers build missiles, and

Civil engineers build targets.")

[daleo]

30. A good dark humor quote. n/t

[goforit]

26. And wh prey tell is pocketing the $$$$$$.

[VegasWolf]

27. Where are those conservative "truth tellers" when you need them?

[cornfedyank]

29. jobs, jobs, jobs

if they got a job they can get married.
if they can get married, they can get laid.
then maybe they will calm down.

on edit: calm down, at least, till they get kids.