Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Are you better off today than you were with Saddam?
The GAO says Iraqis justifiably can give a resounding "NO" to that question.
In several major areas: electricity, the judicial system and security handed over to Iraqis by the US are worse than they were before the war began according to GAO calculations.
Highlights:
• In 13 of Iraq's 18 provinces, electricity was available fewer hours per day on average last month than before the war. Nearly 20 million of Iraq's 26 million people live in those provinces.
• Only $13.7 billion of the $58 billion pledged and allocated worldwide to rebuild Iraq has been spent, with $10 billion more about to be spent. The biggest chunk of that money has been used to run Iraq's ministry operations.
• The country's court system is more clogged than before the war, and judges are frequent targets of assassination attempts.
• The new Iraqi civil-defense, police and overall security units are suffering from mass desertions, are poorly trained and ill-equipped.
• The number of what the now-disbanded Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) called significant insurgent attacks skyrocketed from 411 in February to 1,169 in May.
Interestingly...Americans can ask themselves this same question in regard to Bush...and give the same answer.
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In several major areas: electricity, the judicial system and security handed over to Iraqis by the US are worse than they were before the war began according to GAO calculations.
Highlights:
• In 13 of Iraq's 18 provinces, electricity was available fewer hours per day on average last month than before the war. Nearly 20 million of Iraq's 26 million people live in those provinces.
• Only $13.7 billion of the $58 billion pledged and allocated worldwide to rebuild Iraq has been spent, with $10 billion more about to be spent. The biggest chunk of that money has been used to run Iraq's ministry operations.
• The country's court system is more clogged than before the war, and judges are frequent targets of assassination attempts.
• The new Iraqi civil-defense, police and overall security units are suffering from mass desertions, are poorly trained and ill-equipped.
• The number of what the now-disbanded Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) called significant insurgent attacks skyrocketed from 411 in February to 1,169 in May.
Interestingly...Americans can ask themselves this same question in regard to Bush...and give the same answer.
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