Rebuilding in Iraq Tops 4,000 Projects(Good news the LSM is NOT reporting!)

When and if the smoke ever clears in Iraq, Pentagon officials say the world finally will see a minor miracle.

"Most Americans don't understand something equivalent to the Marshall Plan has been accomplished in Iraq," said Dean G. Popps, principal assistant secretary of the Army for acquisitions, logistics and technology.

The Army is the program manager for $20 billion in U.S. taxpayer money that flowed to Iraq after the 2003 invasion to spur a building boom of more than 4,000 projects.

Amid constant deadly threats from bloodthirsty insurgents, and without a viable Iraqi private contracting sector, the Army Corps of Engineers has supervised the construction of electric grids, health care centers, schools, water and sewage treatment facilities, police stations, academies and border posts.

Not counting the deteriorating security situation, no facet of the Iraq war has received more negative press than the U.S.- and Iraqi-financed reconstruction. The Washington Times, along with other newspapers, has published a series of articles on setbacks and corruption. But, the Pentagon contends there is another storyline.

"It's quite a heroic story maligned often by the news media," Mr. Popps said during an interview in his E-Ring Pentagon office. A nearby multicolored map designates hundreds of projects started and completed, from Mosul to Basra.

"Today, the Pentagon is handing out a score sheet:

•Six new primary care facilities, with 66 more under construction; 11 hospitals renovated; more than 800 schools fixed up; more than 300 police stations and facilities and 248 border control forts.

•Added 407,000 cubic meters per day of water treatment; a new sewage-treatment system for Basra; work on Baghdad's three plants continues; oil production exceeds the 2002 level of 2 million barrels a day by 500,000.

•The Ministry of Electricity now sends power to Baghdad for four to eight hours a day, and 10 to 12 for the rest of the country. Iraqis are now free to buy consumer items such as generators, which provide some homes with power around-the-clock."

Iraqis are now free to buy consumer items such as generators, which provide some homes with power around-the-clock."

Apparently they like buying almost as much as killing Americans. In Sept and Oct, for the first time in the war, our wounded exceeded 760 for two consecutive months.

Split it in three and let Iranians fight a Sunni and Kurdish enemy... THAT... will bring down Iran and save Americans.

Building 4000 or 40,000 projects won't do squat...just look at Saudi... they have all the "projects" in the world and still teach hate for the west.

To their credit the WT does sometimes report a balance view.
One would be remiss if they did not think the Iraqi have a lot of problems to solve. Just the labor of love to get those remote border forts up and running from scratch took ten times as long as it would have in the USA.
The Iraqi workers for the most part do not have a work ethic along the lines of the west. I remember reading articles posted here indicating that they would show up for a few days then simply dissapear once they made enough bucks. The colonel in charge of the border post construction was always at odds as where she could find enough of reliable construction workers to complete a number of those forts.
Many where partially completed then work had to stop due to not having the physical laborers available to complete different stages. And surely the issue was not one of being afraid to go to work for fear of getting bumped off, because they would not have even been willing from day one to participate if that was the case.
Now perhaps it is not fair to portrait the whole country as being lazy, not wanting to participate in scheduled work activities but, then again, it may be part of the problem along with the obviouse death threats in some areas for those that want to work for the IG/US/Coalition. The country is surely in a super crippled state.
Lastly. Something many of us seldom make note of. Saddam ran a socialitic state. The people simply are not geared up to going to work each day at factories, foundaries, oil rigs, motor polls as mechanics, carpenters, road workers, etc..
I wonder how many Freepers realize when Saddam wanted to build the east/west highway system and associated railroad net in northern al Anbar. He had to employ thousands of North Korean workers to get the jobs done.
Hence the name of the FOB my nephew stayed at on his second tour. FOB Korean Village.
Now if there where sufficient reliable Iraqi workers available, why wouldn't he had simply put his own people to work.

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