Posted on 12/18/2006 2:22:45 PM PST by tobyhill
In the midst of all the civil war, quagmire, cataclysmic, doom and gloom reports about Iraq comes a shocking story from an even more shocking source. According to Newsweek, Iraq’s economy is booming (hat tip to Drudge, emphasis mine throughout):
Civil war or not, Iraq has an economy, and—mother of all surprises—it's doing remarkably well. Real estate is booming. Construction, retail and wholesale trade sectors are healthy, too, according to a report by Global Insight in London. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports 34,000 registered companies in Iraq, up from 8,000 three years ago. Sales of secondhand cars, televisions and mobile phones have all risen sharply. Estimates vary, but one from Global Insight puts GDP growth at 17 percent last year and projects 13 percent for 2006. The World Bank has it lower: at 4 percent this year. But, given all the attention paid to deteriorating security, the startling fact is that Iraq is growing at all.
Amazed? Shocked? Sound like those who claim that only the negative side of the story is reaching our shores? Well, there’s more: "Iraq is a crippled nation growing on the financial equivalent of steroids, with money pouring in from abroad. National oil revenues and foreign grants look set to total $41 billion this year, according to the IMF. With security improving in one key spot—the southern oilfields—that figure could go up."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...
Well, knock me over with a feather! Great to hear!
BTT!
Shocked that the Iraqi enconomy is booming...or
shocked that the MSM reported it?
The MSM has been lying all along, pretending that the whole nation was in total chaos and collapse but in reality the violence and collapse is isolated to very, very few parts of Iraq in total.
Yeah no kidding... not sure how that article got into newsweak.
Check out the last line:
The withdrawal of a certain great power could drastically reduce the foreign money flow, and knock the crippled economy flat.
"The U.S. wanted to create the conditions in which small-scale private enterprise could blossom," says Jan Randolph, head of sovereign risk at Global Insight. "In a sense, they've succeeded.""In a sense" ???
What in what sense?
In the sense of success as opposed to failure?
In that sense?
The US tried to do something and in a sense they succeeded... in the sense that they were successful in what they tried to do?
In that sense?
(I guess, in a sense, it galls Jan Randolph to have to say outright that the US succeeded, so, in a sense, he hedged his words. Just so he doesn't get called to account at his next liberal cocktail party. In that sense.)
Outstanding news! Iraqi Freedom Bump!
ping
Please... Someone post this on DU
That's equally true of the MSM on the US economy--at least until the Democrats regained Congress.
The World Bank tries to destroy the growth notion by claiming it only grew by 4%? What a bunch of morons. Some countries would kill for a 4% growth and some do.
Surpise, surprise! Pelosi and the mind-twisted Liberal traitors in her Party will never believe it. Too bad the American voters were suckered. Now, we will all have to suffer the consequences and they won't be pretty.
The tunes are changing.
This is why you never trust a liberal and never ever agree with them even to be nice. Iraq has been spun into a hysteria. The problems are not as they are seen on tv but that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how many milestones on the plan for Iraq have been met or how much evidence of progress is shown what matters is what the talking heads who hype every misstep believe.
They (the media) should be held responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Iraqi and Coalition soldiers. Every time the media has stirred the pot there has been an up tick in deaths of US soldiers and attacks on Iraqi civilians. It is time someone sued the media outlets for slanted news that has put our soldiers in danger and resulted directly in their deaths. If they can blame gun manufacturers for for gun deaths then we can blame them for deaths related to outrage fueled by the misleading stories they print.
Put the Democrats back into power and magically all is well.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.