An Unkept Promise in Iraq - NYT Editorial

[kpete]

Editorial
An Unkept Promise in Iraq
April 17, 2006
Two years ago, the United States government promised to build more than 140 badly needed health clinics in Iraq, bringing basic care to underserved areas outside the big cities. That could have done a lot of good, saving innocent Iraqi lives and building good will for the United States in places where it has grown dangerously scarce. A generous cost-plus contract was awarded to Parsons Inc., an American construction firm, to do the work, supervised by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Now, with roughly $200 million already spent and financing from Washington set to run out in less than nine months, it appears extremely unlikely that most of those clinics will ever be built. As The Washington Post reported earlier this month, the Army Corps of Engineers predicts that no more than 20 clinics will actually be completed — out of 142.

America's good intentions should not be allowed to expire with so pathetically little achieved. The country's three years in Iraq have been a cavalcade of squandered opportunities and unanticipated outcomes. Many of those are now, sadly, beyond retrieval. The health clinics are not.

There appears to be plenty of blame to go around for the health clinics fiasco. High on the list comes the Bush administration's stubborn refusal to factor the deteriorating military situation into reconstruction planning. By the time this contract was awarded, in the spring of 2004, it should have been clear that special security measures would be needed in many areas.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/17/opinion/17mon1.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fEditorials&oref=slogin

[wtmusic]

1. We just need to throw more money at the problem

If it takes $10M to build a clinic, only $1.2B more to finish the job!

UNANTICIPATED OUTCOMES?? Unanticipated by...WHOM? To whom is this idiot talking??? What was the big "opportunity" that was squandered...to never go there in the first place???

My blood pressure...

:rant:

[NNN0LHI]

2. Bush's people are busy spending our tax dollars on booze and prostitutes

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=965261&mesg_id=965261

[Jacobin]

3. This idiot is talking about the wrong 'promise'

Bush/Rumsfeld, et al promised to leave in six months or less...of course they never meant that, but hey, it was a promise.

This idiot thinks that we can build shit for the Iraqis and make them love us. He's out of his fricking mind. They are blowing up anything we do as fast as they can because they want us to leave their country.