May 24, 2004
A Little Perspective
When it comes to rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure a little perspective might come in handy. According to ElectronicIraq.net the annual spending for Iraq's water and sewage systems went from $110 million per year to aroudn $8 million. Now before you Liberals start cursing Bush for being a completely blinkered jackass, let me tell you the years for those numbers: 1990 to 1996. In other words, much of the problems with today's water and sewage treatment facilities in Iraq is due to long term neglect. Or for you Liberals, there is not a damned thing Bush could have done to prevent such a decay.
By 1995, access to potable water in urban areas had fallen from 95 percent in 1990 to 92 percent, and in rural areas from 75 percent to 44 percent. By 1997, water treatment plants were working at only 40 percent of their nominal capacities. The existing sewage treatment plants were not fully operational and untreated raw sewage was being disposed of into rivers - the direct source of drinking water for many - with consequent increases in the incidence of water-borne diseases.
Please note the time frames being discussed here. The bottom line is that things were getting bad years before Bush was President, let alone considering war with Iraq.
Now this doesn't mean that the war didn't impact the existing systems, because it did. However, there was already a considerable amount of degredation of the existing systems, and trying to fix all of this is going to take time.
Posted by Steve at May 24, 2004 11:09 AM | TrackBackMuch of the needed chemicals for water purification (chlorine, e.g.), were prohibited from importation to Iraq as potential dual-use substances. That was after the first Gulf War TARGETED the infrastructure of water purification, a war crime.
As to the reconstruction of the infrastructure effort, of the $87 billion or so previously authorized for Iraq, only $17 billion was budgeted for these reconstruction purposes. Of that amount of money, something under 5% of it has been spent to date, vastly retarding the progress that could have been made, should have been made, in restoring necessities to that country already.
Posted by: sofla on May 24, 2004 05:32 PMsofla: "...the first Gulf War TARGETED the infrastructure of water purification, a war crime."
Interesting. Several possibilities:
1) You know what you're talking about re the targeting plans, in which case you should be prosecuted for revealing classified information. I don't notice the FBI mentioning your posts.
2) You don't know what you're talking about re targeting plans, but have seen at least one bombed water purification plant in Iraq. Share the photos, do. We're all eyes.
3) You don't know what you're talking about, period, and are simply lying except for the bit about the money, which is public record and entirely due to the fact that no-one especially wants to build something for the terrorists to blow up.
My money's on (3).
Regards,
Ric
Geeze, man, Saddam was a Stalinist. How many more reasons do you need to find to explain infrastructure decay?
Posted by: K T Cat on June 2, 2004 12:02 PM