"Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1..."

Coalition Provisional Authority, White House ^ | Oct. 19, 2003 | L Paul Bremer, VP Cheney (w/ liberties taken by me)

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has graduated and is on active duty·   

Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security to their fellow citizens.

Since  President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...nearly all of Iraq’s 400 courts are functioning. 

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...on Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts—exceeding the pre-war average.

Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1, by October 1, Coalition forces had rehabbed over 1,500 schools - 500 more than their target. 

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.

Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...doctors’ salaries are at least eight times what they were under Saddam.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700 tons in May to a current total of 12,000 tons.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...the Coalition has helped administer over 22 million vaccination doses to Iraq’s children.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...a Coalition program has cleared over 14,000 kilometers of Iraq's 27,000 kilometers of weed-choked canals.  They now irrigate tens of thousands of farms.  This project has created jobs for more than 100,000 Iraqi men and women.

Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...we have restored over three-quarters of pre-war telephone services and over two-thirds of the potable water production.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... there are 4,900 full-service connections.  We expect 50,000 by January first.

Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...the wheels of commerce are turning.  From bicycles to satellite dishes to cars and trucks, businesses are coming to life in all major cities and towns.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...95 percent of all pre-war bank customers have service and first-time customers are opening accounts daily.

Since  President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... Iraqi banks are making loans to finance businesses.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...the central bank is fully independent.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... Iraq has one of the world’s most growth-oriented investment and banking laws.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... Iraq (has) a single, unified currency for the first time in 15 years.

Since  President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...satellite dishes are legal.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...foreign journalists aren't  on 10-day visas paying mandatory and extortionate fees to the Ministry of Information for “minders” and other government spies. 

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... there is no Ministry of Information.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...there are more than 170 newspapers.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... you can buy satellite dishes on what seems like every street corner.

Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... foreign journalists and everyone else are free to come and go.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...a nation that  had not one single element—legislative, judicial or executive-- of a representative government, does.

Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...in Baghdad alone residents have selected 88 advisory councils.  Baghdad’s first democratic transfer of power in 35 years happened when the city council elected its new chairman.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...today in Iraq chambers of commerce, business, school and professional organizations are electing their leaders all over the country.

Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... 25 ministers, selected by the most representative governing body in Iraq’s history, run the day-to-day business of government.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...the Iraqi government regularly participates in international events.  Since July the Iraqi government has been represented in over two dozen international meetings, including those of the UN General Assembly, the Arab League, the World Bank and IMF and, today, the Islamic Conference Summit.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs today announced that it is reopening over 30 Iraqi embassies around the world.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...Shia religious festivals that were all but banned, aren't. 

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... for the first time in 35 years, in Karbala thousands of Shiites celebrate the pilgrimage of the 12^th Imam.

Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...the Coalition has completed over 13,000 reconstruction projects, large and small, as part of (a) strategic plan for the reconstruction of Iraq.

 Coalition Provisional Authority Administrator Press Conference 9 October 2003

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Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...Uday and Queasy are dead - and no longer feeding innocent Iraqis to his zoo lions, raping the young daughters of local leaders to force cooperation, torturing Iraq's soccer players for losing games...murdering critics.

 

Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...children aren't  imprisoned or murdered when their parents disagree with the government.

 

Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...political opponents aren't imprisoned, tortured, executed, maimed, or are forced to watch their families die for disagreeing with Saddam.

 

Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...millions of longsuffering Iraqis no longer live in perpetual terror.

 

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...Saudis will hold municipal elections.*

 

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... Qatar is reforming education to give more choices to parents.*

 

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... Jordan is accelerating market economic reforms.*

 

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for the first time to an Iranian -- a Muslim woman who speaks out with courage for human rights, for democracy and for peace.*  ~ * VP Cheney, 10/17

 

Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...he has not faltered or failed.

 

Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...Saddam is gone.

 

Since President  Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... Iraq is free.

 

 

[PISANO]

Thanks for reminding US ALL there is NOTHING more precious than FREEDOM.

[prognostigaator]

ditto writ huge

[HarryH]

!ping

Thank you!

[NutCrackerBoy]

I shed a fierce tear reading your wonderful post. If that makes me a pansy liberal, so be it.

I am for freedom in Iran, Cuba, ... It happens that our security is on the line in establishing Iraqi freedom.

[blackie]

The evidence is there ~ Too bad that the pro-terrorist democrats and their left-wing lackeys in the media are so brain dead!

Be Well ~ Be Armed ~ Be Safe ~ Molon Labe!

[blackie]

For your information, Lady.

[tsmith130]

I think the message in RC's post is to point to the fact that many milestones have been reached on the Iraqis Road to Freedom (in a short time and by many courageous people). You seem to want to beat her up over the last 3 words..."Iraq is Free". I think that's an unfair assessment of her intentions.

[Cacophonous]

I'm not trying to beat up on anyone; I've read enough of Cowgirl's posts to know she's nothing if not absolutely sincere, intelligent and purely patriotic. I wouldn't insult her at all.

Perhaps I came on a little strong, and for that I apologize. But here is my point:

We all know how eagerly the libs and dems latch onto words uttered without thought (remember the 16-word "imminent threat" hullabaloo).

You can bet that if the GOP uses in its campaign the words "Iraq is free", the dems and libs will jump all over it with the same questions I had (though in an entirely different spirit). "If Iraq is free now, why do we need to be over there? If Iraq is free, why are US troops being shot?" You know the drill, and you know I'm right. So I'm just warning the GOP of the obvious: be careful what you say.

A better - and truer - thing to emphasize is how much better off the Iraqis are, and how much better things are going to get, emphasizing that it ain't over yet.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Because we're not finished yet.

Not only that, but leaving behind the sort of unstable situation we see every day there, is the equivalent of doing a half-assed job, something normally attributed to liberals.

If you want a more complex answer, Iraq also acts as a base of operations for the broader War on Terror, as well as a rented battlefield.

Let them come at us there, on foreign soil, not here on ours.

We will leave when the job is done properly, instead of leaving behind a different problem like we've done so many times before.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Nice job RC.

[Luis Gonzalez]

One last thing.

The last japanese soldier surrendered in 1974.

Sometimes, things take time.

[be-baw]

22,000,000 vaccinations to Iraqi children? That works out to an average of more than 120,000 per day.

Incredible...

[maica]

He was also welcoming a carrier home that had been at sea, FOR A YEAR!

His visit was their "parade".


00000


And our anti-military media will never acknowledge that fact for many reasons. One of them is that mentioning that deployments are long, arduous, and dangerous and then they END would somehow be praiseworthy of the military might of the US. That is something our Old Media can never do. For them, that would be almost as difficult to say as to say that President Bush was legitimately elected. Words that cannot pass their lips, without turning them to stone.

How many battle groups do we still have on station in the vicinity of Iraq? Does the anti-Bush media even care to know the answer. I didn't think so!

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Big TEXAS sized G.W.B. BuMpS

[Malsua]

BTTT

[Naspino]

So are you saying you agree with Koppel or that his statement proves his twisted logic?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1001817/posts?page=54#54

[Naspino]

thing to emphasize is how much better off the Iraqis are,

That wouldn't be a phrase to latch on to either. They've already made their mantra "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?".

[Cacophonous]

It would be pretty difficult to argue that Iraqis are worse off now than with Saddam.

[Naspino]

Koppels logic is to quote his only friends Some, Many, and Polls. He then uses their quotes to contradict all fact. When desperate he brings on someone that has very little connection with anything; gets a quote from them and then uses it as a quote from Bush. Then he justifies his own bias and lies by stating that Some, Many, and Polls think Bush is a lier too.

[Naspino]

It would be pretty difficult to argue that Iraqis are worse off now than with Saddam.

You'd think. But I just watched a special the other day that rapes and murders were out of control and the usual quote from some guy in a robe saying "This did not happen under Saddam.."