Much of Iraq Still In Ruin As U.S. Builders Leave

[Hissyspit]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4258694.html

Oct. 15, 2006, 12:07AM
Much of Iraq still in ruin as U.S. builders leave

Local officials will be faced with running plants and finishing jobs left by big companies
By CHARLES J. HANLEY
Associated Press

Close behind U.S. tanks and troops, America's big builders invaded Iraq three years ago. Now the reconstruction funds are drying up and they're pulling out, leaving completed projects and unfulfilled plans in the hands of an Iraqi government unprepared to manage either.

The Oct. 1 start of the U.S. government's 2007 fiscal year signaled an end to U.S. aid for new reconstruction in Iraq.

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Fewer than half the electricity and oil projects planned have been completed, internal documents of the U.S. reconstruction command show. Scores of other projects were canceled, and the "gap" can be seen on the streets of Baghdad, where people spend most of their day without electricity, and spend hours in line for gasoline and other scarce fuels.

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"Huge amounts of funds were wasted because of bureaucracy, corruption, incapacity and the spending of money on unimportant projects," said Ali Baban, planning minister in Iraq's five-month-old government.

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By adding 2,710 megawatts — more than the output of America's Hoover Dam — U.S. engineers have boosted Iraq's potential generating capacity above 7,000. But power hasn't flowed at anywhere near that capacity, and seldom topped even the paltry level of prewar Iraq, about 4,500 megawatts. Baghdad gets no more than four to six hours of electricity a day.

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[fooj]

1. The American Embassy is handled...all 107 acres of it.

They left the country in ruins. :cry: The Iraqi people don't deserve this...nobody does. We will NEVER be forgiven for this occupation. I am soooo ashamed.

[Disturbed]

2. The US Occupation of Iraq could be halted within a few months

if Congress refused to fund it.