Bush plan's $1B won't go far in Iraq

[Kadie]

Bush plan's $1B won't go far in Iraq
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
13 minutes ago


The extra billion dollars of reconstruction aid in President Bush's Iraq plan won't go far in a country where electricity output still barely meets half the demand and oil production is falling short by almost a million barrels a day.

snip...
"It is symbolic, at best, and is unlikely to have substantial impact in Iraq," Gordon Adams, a budget expert at Washington's Woodrow Wilson Center, said of the Bush aid proposal.

In its December recommendations, the Iraq Study Group had called for boosting U.S. reconstruction assistance to $5 billion a year.

For electricity alone, Iraq needs $27 billion to fully rebuild the grid to meet growing power needs, Baghdad's Electricity Ministry estimates. In a new Iraq oversight report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says Iraq's electricity demand averaged 8,210 megawatts last year, but peak generation reached only 4,317 megawatts. Baghdad residents got only six hours of power a day on average last summer.

snip...
The GAO reports that 16 of 35 gas turbines the Americans installed in Iraqi power plants — even though Iraq lacks an extensive natural gas network — are using crude oil or other low-quality fuels, producing as little as half the rated power and causing frequent shutdowns.

"Why did the United States purchase natural gas turbines to generate electricity when the necessary supply of natural gas was not assured in Iraq?" the auditors asked.

more...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070114/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_bush_aid_plan_2

[Jacobin]

1. That's just ridiculous

One billion dollars divided by the 24 million people there gives each man woman and child the sum of $41.67 each, a princely sum to compensate them for destroying their country.

What american wouldn't make the same trade?

[durtee librul]

2. If I thought the money

would go to Iraq and not to Halliburton or KBR.....