'Democracy' Brings Bleak Days

[tonka023]

http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/hard_news/000346.php#more

BAGHDAD, Jan 10 (IPS) - Many Iraqis see dismal days ahead in the face of rising violence and the decision by the U.S. administration not to seek any further funds for reconstruction.

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World Bank president and former U.S. deputy defence secretary Paul
Wolfowitz had said Iraq could "really finance its own reconstruction."
But such words have fallen flat because the state of the infrastructure
is clearly worse now than even during the harsh economic sanctions of
the 1990s.

As the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq approaches, a
study by Linda Bilmes at Harvard University and Dr. Joseph Stiglitz at
Columbia University found that "the total economic costs of the war,
including direct costs and macroeconomic costs, lie between 1 trillion
and 2 trillion dollars." A trillion is a thousand billion.

This money has done little for Iraq. The situation on the ground remains
dire, with estimates of unemployment at 70 percent.

[tonka023]

1. I apologize, I did not mean to post this to this forum n/t