Sunday 24th of November 2024
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cutting & running .....

‘Bechtel, the giant engineering company, is leaving Iraq. Its mission - to rebuild power, water and sewage plants - wasn't accomplished: Baghdad received less than six hours a day of electricity last month, and much of Iraq's population lives with untreated sewage and without clean water. But Bechtel, having received $2.3 billion of taxpayers' money and having lost the lives of 52 employees, has come to the end of its last government contract.

As Bechtel goes, so goes the whole reconstruction effort. Whatever our leaders may say about their determination to stay the course complete the mission, when it comes to rebuilding Iraq they've already cut and run. The $21 billion allocated for reconstruction over the last three years has been spent, much of it on security rather than its intended purpose, and there's no more money in the pipeline.

The failure of reconstruction in Iraq raises three questions. First, how much did that failure contribute to the overall failure of the war? Second, how was it that America, the great can-do nation, in this case couldn't and didn't? Finally, if we've given up on rebuilding Iraq, what are our troops dying for?’

As Bechtel Goes

Lovers' tiff before divorce?

For U.S. and Top Iraqi, [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/04/world/middleeast/04assess.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all|Animosity Is Mutual]

By JOHN F. BURNS
Published: November 4, 2006
BAGHDAD, Nov. 3 — The cycle of discord and strained reconciliation that has broken into the open between Iraq’s Shiite-led government and the Bush administration has revealed how wide the gulf has become between what the United States expects from the Baghdad government and what it is able or willing to deliver.

Shot before sentence?

From the BBC

Iraqi PM condemns Saddam 'crimes'

Iraq's prime minister has said he hopes Saddam Hussein gets [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6117044.stm|"what he deserves"] for "crimes against the Iraqi people", ahead of Sunday's expected verdict.
In a TV message urging calm, Nouri Maliki said Iraqis should mark it in a way that "does not risk their lives".
Military leave has been cancelled amid heightened security, as Saddam Hussein supporters threatened more violence if he were sentenced to death.
In fresh unrest, police have killed 53 insurgents near Baghdad, officials say. The interior ministry said four policemen also died and 16 insurgents were captured in fierce fighting in the southern outskirts of the city.
A spokesman said police had been acting on information that a number of people were being held hostage in the area, but he said officers had found no sign of any captives.
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Gus: on top of the tortured and mutilated bodies found around Iraq, Insurgents killed and US troops killed etc, and millions are moving out... It appears that democracy in Iraq is no featherbed... but one can hope... But since the US/UK/Aust troops are not cutting and the reconstruction firms are "running", it looks that the 6 or 7 hours of electricity per day the Iraqi people enjoy at the moment might become 2 to 3 hours per day...
Why don't we send our Malcolm over-there to privatise the whole lot of utilities from sewage to water and collect moneys from the US since the Iraqi have got less than ever before. We can then see how he would operate... our states obviously can afford to pay for extra water from his "private sources" since they are cashed up to the rafters (snigger)...
But the problems are not as simple as he makes out. The easiest solution to provide extra water to Sydney is via desalination but who is going to excise land for this and who's prepared to pay the price?
Recycling is also good but needs more costly infrastructure too... Who's going to pay for that, environmentally and spatially? Thus a government will have to "facilitate" private enterprise and become at the mercy of these...
Any new housing estate should have it's own rain water storage and treatment. Any new home should have rainwater tank. Any new home should be made to more stringent specs that also include solar water heating and solar panels back to the main grid. Starting now and slowly voluntary improving older homes on this front would lick the problem of water and energy in no time. But the federal government wants to retain control of your energy and water whether it's done by "private" enterprise (which in the long run will cost you about twice as much because "they" have to make a profit increasing 15 per cent annually) or by public (governmental) structure... See both private enterprise and government want you to be caught in "their' web. Either way you will be sucked.
Sorry, I've digressed... But that's my privilege...

All dummies have to go

[http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1940015,00.html|Donald Rumsfeld must go,]
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Gus: Dummy Rummy, Dummy Bushy as well as Condi Rice-Dummy have to go... In whatever order I don't care, as long as it's now.