Posted on 10/25/2003 5:06:56 PM PDT by Stultis
By David Shelby Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The Iraqi economy is functioning and poised to grow according to USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios. In an October 21 briefing at the Foreign Press Center in Washington, Natsios observed, "The big thing that I look at whenever I go to a country that has just been through a war or conflict is the markets. Are the markets functioning? Because merchants don't take risks if things are highly unstable. And there are more things on the markets now in the streets of Baghdad than there have been in 20 years."
Natsios noted in particular the growing number of satellite dishes being installed as Iraqis seek access to international broadcasts.
Furthermore, Natsios and USAID staff working in Iraq see enormous potential for quick economic growth. "If Iraq gets their policies right and they move into a stable market economy under a democratic system of government, I think it could be the richest country in the Middle East," Natsios asserted.
"[This is] mainly because the number of highly educated, technically skilled people in Iraq is very high," he continued. "I was kind of astonished at the level of competence. And they're not only competent technically in their disciplines, like medicine, they're also very good managers. They made systems work that were profoundly dysfunctional," Natsios explained.
The USAID administrator also commended the Iraqis' work ethic. "They're very hard working. There are countries in the world where it's difficult to get the workforce focused in a highly efficient way," he said. "Our people [in Iraq] are telling me that this is very unusual and that there are a lot of building blocks for a highly stable, prosperous economy," Natsios stated.
As the economy begins to grow, of course, the demand on the infrastructure will grow, he said. Natsios confirmed that Iraq's electrical generation capacity returned to its pre-war level of 4400 MW as of a week ago, but he noted that efforts to rebuild capacity were not stopping there. "We expect a lot of industries to come back on line. Pouring all of this money into the economy is having an effect," he explained.
"As the economy begins to pick up, there's going to be more need for electricity and that's why there is this plan that Bechtel and Ambassador Bremer have to get the load up to at least 6000 MW by next June," Natsios continued.
The USAID administrator decried the neglect that the Iraqi infrastructure has suffered over the past 20 years. Discussing the state of facilities currently under reconstruction, he explained, "None of this damage we're talking about, almost none of it, is from the war. It's from the deterioration of infrastructure because money was not put by the Baathist Party into public infrastructure from before the Iran-Iraq War."
He went on to discuss the port of Um Qasr, which is "now one of the most modern ports in the entire Middle East. It's completely dredged, which has not taken place since 1983. We've taken the equivalent of 23 football fields of silt out of it. We've taken out 19 sunken ships and 250 pieces of unexploded ordinance."
The USAID administrator also noted the neglect of the country's human capital. According to Natsios, NGOs and the World Food Program have discovered that the food distribution system in place before the war was being used for purposes of political control. He said, "in some villages and cities 20 percent of the population were not on the rations. They had been taken off because they were politically suspect or they were regarded as opponents of the regime."
He also noted the low level of distribution of oral rehydration salts prior to the war. "Probably the lowest level in the world was in Iraq," he stated. These salts are a common treatment for severe diarrhea in young children and a key to preventing death from gastric diseases. "UNICEF had terrible problems getting the Iraqi government to allow the stuff out of the warehouses," he explained.
Natsios confirmed that everyone in the country is now receiving the food rations, that infant immunization programs are in place and that the rehydration salts are being distributed. "As you go through the list in the health sector, things are improving," he stated.
That's gonna leave a mark.
Rebuilding Iraq C-SPAN Washington Journal 7/3/03 (USAID Director Andrew Natsios was EXCELLENT!)
Natsios OWNED the call-in. He repeatedly SHAMED hard-left hand-wringers, simply with the facts.
He also noted the low level of distribution of oral rehydration salts prior to the war. "Probably the lowest level in the world was in Iraq," he stated. These salts are a common treatment for severe diarrhea in young children and a key to preventing death from gastric diseases. "UNICEF had terrible problems getting the Iraqi government to allow the stuff out of the warehouses," he explained.
In the other C-SPAN appearance I linked Natsios noted that Saddam's government also obstructed the dispersement of vaccines by NGOs and U.N. agencies. Note also his comments in the current press conference about 20 percent of elligible Iraqis purposefully excluded by Saddam from food aid. This is important to counter the leftists who are still whining about Iraqi deaths from sanctions. Saddam was quite intentionally following policies to fill coffins with children and babies for his anti-sanctions propadanda parades. Preventing distribution of rehydration salts was an especially effective way to do this as children suffer especially high mortality from untreated dysentary.
See also:
| How Saddam 'staged' fake baby funerals ^ |
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| Posted by aculeus On 06/22/2002 9:37 PM CDT with 33 comments The Observer ^ | Sunday June 23, 2002 | John Sweeney The Iraqi dictator says his country's children are dying in their thousands because of the West's embargoes. John Sweeney, in a TV documentary to be shown tonight, says the figures are bogus. Here he reports from Iraq on his findings The witness against the government of Iraq walked stiffly into the room, metal callipers buckled to heavy medical shoes. They had tortured her two years ago. She is now four. |
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| Saddam's parades of dead babies are exposed as a cynical charade ^ |
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| Posted by Pokey78 On 05/24/2003 6:28 PM CDT with 17 comments The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 05/25/03 | Charlotte Edwardes UN sanctions did not kill the hundreds of infants displayed over the years - it was neglect by the former regime, Iraqi doctors in Baghdad tell Charlotte Edwardes The "baby parades" were a staple of Saddam Hussein's propaganda machine for a decade. Convoys of taxis, with the tiny coffins of dead infants strapped to their roofs - allegedly killed by United Nations sanctions - were driven through the streets of Baghdad, past crowds of women screaming anti-Western slogans. The moving scenes were often filmed by visiting television crews and provided valuable ammunition to anti-sanctions activists such as George Galloway |
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Oh, and my Marlins are World Series Champions!
Sir, you say these things, and I read some of the stuff in the Financial Times. It's simply inaccurate. You keep repeating these things, they are not accurate, and I think it's really deceptive to do it. So I would urge you to get your facts straight.
~~~
Press taking an overdue one on the chin, courtesy of a courageous Coalition ally.
~~~
If you want on or off my Pro-Coalition ping list, please Freepmail me. Warning: it is a high volume ping list on good days. (Most days are good days).
We need a couple thousand more just like him and the entire world would be straightened out in no time.
Yeah, well, I'm afraid this press conference was from early last week -- 21 Oct -- and the Financial Times story has already gone from free access to by subscription only. (And I couldn't find it posted anywhere else.):
If raising the cash is tough, spending it is even tougher
Financial Times (subscription), UK - Oct 22, 2003
By Alan Beattie. ... Andrew Natsios, head of the US Agency for International Development (USAid), said his agency had already spent $2bn of the $2.5bn raised for ...
Here's a whiney FT article, however, by the same reporter, bitching about NGO's being expected to publicly acknowledge the money they recieve from U.S. taxpayers. (HORRORS!):
NGOs Under Pressure on Relief Funds- Global Policy Forum - NGOs
By Alan Beattie. ... Andrew Natsios, head of USAID, made the remarks at a recent forum
of InterAction, a network of relief and development NGOs that includes Care ...
He actually did report it, but he wrote another article doing the bashing. Right... those leftists always find a way to smack ya
It's "transparent" that this Leftist was out to do a hit piece on America, and kept on pressing to get an answer he could twist.
I guess, in his next farticle, he did...
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