Iraq: The Lights Have Gone Out, Who Cares

[babylonsister]

Iraq: The Lights Have Gone Out, Who Cares
by Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail

BAQUBA - Lack of electricity in Baquba has shattered businesses, and the lives of families. Months of power failures has darkened morale everywhere.In Diyala province, just north of Baghdad, a generation has grown up in dark. The province, and its capital Baquba 40 km north of Baghdad has lived with intermittent electricity supply since the times of the sanctions under Saddam Hussein in the 1990s. Came the U.S. in 2003, and everyone thought it would get better.


“I felt happy when the U.S. invaded Iraq because I thought the electricity problem will be solved, and we would have it all the time like other countries,” Abdul-Kareem Hasan, a trader in Baquba told IPS.

But promises of reconstruction by western contractors proved empty, and there is now less electricity than during the sanctions.

In some cities, homes get electricity just an hour or two a day. Sometimes, there is no electricity for a week. People struggle to get alternative source of electricity.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/16/7102/

[Lone_Star_Dem]

1. 40 percent of the country's 27 million people have no safe water

Sanitation is a nightmare.

4 million Iraqis struggle daily to feed themselves. While half the population is said to be in need of food assistance.

Infant deaths have skyrocketed.

Diseases such as cholera and typhoid have taken root in this fertile environment of despair.

Basic medical care is all but nonexistent due to the lack of doctors and medical supplies.

Welcome to bush's vision of democracy for the people of Iraq.

[PDJane]

2. And don't forget the incidence of cancer

and birth defects from DU...and the absolute pollution of the Tigris and Euphrates, the rivers that brought life to Babylon.

[babylonsister]

3. We've done a heckuva job, haven't we. nt

[slipslidingaway]

4. K&R :( n/t

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. This is what has been done in our names. Feel safer now?

:cry:

[Spurt]

6. K&R

[bonito]

7. Read this today

http://polidics.com/iraq-war/solider-says-us-policy-is-kill-everybody.html

[bluesmail]

8. if we can't kill them (collateral damage)

then we'll force them to leave by destroying their water and electricity and sanitation, ETC

[malaise]

9. The surge is working

The surge is working. The surge is working. The surge is working.
The surge is working. The surge is working. The surge is working.
The surge is working. The surge is working. The surge is working.
The surge is working. The surge is working. The surge is working.
The surge is working. The surge is working. The surge is working.
The surge is working. The surge is working. The surge is working.
The surge is working. The surge is working. The surge is working.
The surge is working. The surge is working. The surge is working.


Why do you hate America? :sarcasm:

[stillcool]

10. scorched earth.

[1776Forever]

11. Even after the US taxpayers have paid Blackwater $833,673,316 - And Halliburton 22 Billion!!!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/25/AR2007092502675_pf.html

Contractors in Iraq Fuel Debate

By Sudarsan Raghavan and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, September 26, 2007

According to federal spending data compiled by the independent Web site FedSpending.org, however, the State Department's Blackwater contracts vastly exceed those of the Pentagon. Since 2004, State has paid Blackwater $833,673,316, compared with Defense Department contracts of $101,219,261.

********************

Iraq rebuilding contracts awarded
Halliburton, Stevedoring Services of America get government contracts for early relief work.
http://money.cnn.com/2003/03/25/news/companies/war_contracts/
March 25, 2003

By Mark Gongloff, CNN/Money Staff Writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The first contracts for rebuilding post-war Iraq have been awarded, and Vice President Dick Cheney's old employer, Halliburton Co., is one of the early winners.

The Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) unit of Halliburton (HAL: up $0.54 to $20.66, Research, Estimates), of which Cheney was CEO from 1995 to 2000, said late Monday that it was awarded a contract by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to put out oil fires and make emergency repairs to Iraq's oil infrastructure.

President Bush Tuesday asked Congress for $489.3 million to cover the cost of repairing damage to Iraq's oil facilities, much or all of which could go to Halliburton or its subcontractors under the terms of its contract with the Army.

********************

truthdig | posted June 27, 2007 (web only)
Taxpayers Lose, Halliburton Gains

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070709/truthdig

Robert Scheer This week's evidence of the continuing corruption of Halliburton and its subsidiaries profiteering from contracts costing American taxpayers an unbelievable $22 billion stems from a report by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. The report, only one of many about Halliburton's recently severed subsidiary KBR, focuses on work done in Baghdad's super-secure Green Zone. While parent company Halliburton insults US taxpayers by relocating its headquarters to the tax shelter of Dubai, subsidiary KBR has been spun off to focus more directly on the American military contracts that form the core of its operations.

******************

Bush and Cheney's legacy - This is what will live in infamy from this Administration!! It will never be forgotten!!

:grr: :nuke: :grr: