Clean Water, Internet Coming to Fallujah

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/11/AR2006071100571.html

Clean Water, Internet Coming to Fallujah

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Clean water should flow to 80 percent of Fallujah's homes this fall, and by summer's end a planned wireless network will provide phone service and Internet access to thousands, a technological leap unimaginable just months ago.

But mounds of rubble litter the city, electricity is available only four hours a day, and an estimated 50,000 people still have not returned 18 months after Fallujah was destroyed in an American assault to wrest control from insurgents.

...

"By the end of the year, that's when we'll see the turnaround," said Maj. Angel Ortiz of San Pedro, Calif., who oversees projects in the area for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "After all these years of planning, that's when it's going to pay off in their eyes."

Officials are eagerly looking forward to the completion of a multimillion-dollar water treatment project they say will deliver clean water to 80 percent of Fallujah's homes.

[CoffeeCat]

1. Lovely...

So, after the residents of Fallujah are shot repeatedly while walking to the market---they can crawl home, have a refreshing drink of cold water, check their email and then bleed to death from their wounds.

That's progress, folks!

[underpants]

5. No now you make an assumption there that this article doesn't state

it says they will have internet it doesn't say anything about electricity.

This is a great example of the Bush planning in Iraq.

[Freedom4Sale]

21. Bush doesnt know electricity is a requirement for internet

Since Bush probably doesnt know that you need a computer to access the internet, and that electricity powers the computer, he doesnt seem to be concerned that electricity isnt operational.

[Ian David]

18. Now they can order their groceries from peapod.com? n/t

[maddezmom]

2. yeah, this will happen probably around the same time "the Taliben

will be defeated in Afghanistan" ala Rummy today :eyes:

[Deja Q]

6. But we were told the Taliban was wiped out in 2002.

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/040412fa_fact

In December, 2002, a year after the Taliban had been driven from power in Afghanistan, Donald Rumsfeld gave an upbeat assessment of the country’s future to CNN’s Larry King. “They have elected a government. . . . The Taliban are gone. The Al Qaeda are gone. The country is not a perfectly stable place, and it needs a great deal of reconstruction funds,” Rumsfeld said. “There are people who are throwing hand grenades and shooting off rockets and trying to kill people, but there are people who are trying to kill people in New York or San Francisco. So it’s not going to be a perfectly tidy place.” Nonetheless, he said, “I’m hopeful, I’m encouraged.” And he added, “I wish them well.”

Nice to know a bunch of drug-dealing warlords fare better than people in our own cities. :shrug:

[thecrow]

8. When was the last time....

that people were "throwing hand grenades and shooting off rockets and trying to kill people" in San Francisco or New York?

I think we woulda heard about it.....?

Rummy is a LIAR.

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. I fully expected and exclamation point on the first sentence. n/t

[Ron Green]

4. Hmm... don't we still have some water needs here in the US?

I know it's a big issue in much of the Southwest.

[daleo]

7. Water, phone service and internet

I doubt that any of these was "unimaginable just months ago" to Iraqis.

I don't mean they had good infrastructure "just months ago", but they did before the invasion.

[thecrow]

9. 80% of how many houses?

I thought we pretty much obliterated the city.....???

[lapfog_1]

20. But but but

there will be clean running water AND internet to those mounds of rubble!

That's real progress! :sarcasm:

[0007]

10. Clean water? By who's standards

[SoCalDem]

11. WHAT??? No ponies?

Count me OUT.. Everyone should at least get a pony :)

[Roland99]

12. This appears to be good news but I do have one rather large gripe

Iraqi engineers said insurgents target U.S.-funded projects but have largely spared those funded by the Iraqi government.

Why the hell is the US involved in this? It's THEIR country and the Iraqis are more than capable of rebuilding the damage. They have very capable workers there.

When will Congress shit *and* get off the pot and stop funding this money pit?

[Marie26]

13. No fat contracts

for US companies that way. Halliburton's got a lot of these reconstruction contracts.

[grilled onions]

14. IOL

Iraq On Line! Of course OIL would have been more appropo but I can't think of a good title!

[RCinBrooklyn]

15. The other 20% are so happy for everyone else - they're gleeful.

[lumpy]

16. Such wonderful news!

So after the US military blasted the city of Fallujah to rubble, killing and driving people from their homes that have been converted to rubble, reconstruction begins.... to clean up the horrible mess the US military found necessary to create. These lucky Fallujians will even get clean water and best of all, the internet! We should be soooo proud of the work that has been done to bring freedom to the Iraqi people, but of course freedom doesn't always come without a price....yeah

(sarcasm)

[cap]

19. so falluja will get clean water and wireless while NOLA

and the Gulf Coast rot....

Somehow I dont think so... this adminstration has never done anything for anyone else...

By the way, how are they going to get clean water without electricity?

This is an issuance of a PR Flak

[Ian David]

17. Yay! Deposed leader of Nigeria spam coming soon from Iraq!

On the other hand, we can email them over there so they don't think we all hate them over here.




http://www.sorryeverybody.com/


And I suppose we could also send emails alerting them to Geraldo Rivera's location.

[PerceptionManagement]

22. What does "Clean Internet" look like?

[zonkers]

23. Ther will be unholy carnage if Atlantic Broadband gets the franchise.

[BushOut06]

24. Awesome! Maybe I can play some of them on Xbox Live now

Oh wait - will they be getting any Xbox 360s? If not, then it's not really progress, is it?

:sarcasm:

[teryang]

25. Hurray ! Fallujah is no longer the Guernica of our fascist war!

After destroying the city, bombing ambulances and hospitals, killing women, children and old men, in a free fire zone, and burning people to death with WP, I guess everyone is going to kiss and make up.

[hatrack]

26. Yes, Major Ortiz, we'll be watching carefully around Christmastime

I bet everything will be just GRAND in Fallujah!

Betcha they'll have broadband!

:eyes: