Posted on 01/01/2005 2:37:18 PM PST by CHARLITE
Ray is completing his tour in Iraq. He offers this summary of what's been accomplished there:
Over 400,000 kids have up-to-date immunizations.
School attendance is up 80% from levels before the war.
Over 1,500 schools have been renovated and rid of the weapons stored there so education can occur.
The port of Uhm Qasar was renovated so grain can be off-loaded from ships faster.
The country had its first 2 billion barrel export of oil in August.
Over 4.5 million people have clean drinking water for the first time ever in Iraq.
The country now receives 2 times the electrical power it did before the war.
100% of the hospitals are open and fully staffed, compared to 35% before the war.
Elections are taking place in every major city, and city councils are in place.
Sewer and water lines are installed in every major city.
Over 60,000 police are patrolling the streets.
Over 100,000 Iraqi civil defense police are securing the country.
Over 80,000 Iraqi soldiers are patrolling the streets side by side with US soldiers.
Over 400,000 people have telephones for the first time ever.
Students are taught field sanitation and hand washing techniques to prevent the spread of germs.
An interim constitution has been signed.
Girls are allowed to attend school.
He concludes:
Don't believe for one second that these people do not want us there. I have met many, many people from Iraq that want us there, and in a bad way. They say they will never see the freedoms we talk about but they hope their children will [a sobering assessment - ed]. We are doing a good job in Iraq and I challenge anyone, anywhere to dispute me on these facts. Posted by deacon at powerlineblog.com
Thanks for the good news.
Thank you to our armed forces
Great, but I think that girls were allowed to attend school school even before Saddam.
ping
Should we be trusting those Iraqi forces? I don't like to hear that our troops are working side-by-side with them if the Iraqi forces are infiltrated. I think we need to be taking a tougher line with the Iraqis, and my patience for Oprah-style, feel-good brotherhood with the Iraqi forces ended with the Mosul attack.
update ping
Uh, not to be too picky, but you left off the following:
"UPDATE: Many of the assertions made by Reynolds were challenged by The Orwellian Times. I'm going to leave the "good news from Iraq" beat to Chrenkoff from now on.
Thanks to the readers who pointed me to the conflicting information."
Some of those numbers sound a bit much to me, too. Maybe I'm wrong, but I find it hard to believe that they have twice the electrical power. Just a few months ago, they were struggling to get back to pre-war levels. Doubling it would require major work.
Saw this in an email last April.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/reynolds.asp
a good website to show your support of the troops is here, started by a college student: http://www.showoursupport.com/
Thank you,CHARLITE! This is the best thing I've read all day! It's getting so that the only uplifting news you get is from the blogs! I kind of like "Iraq The Model" and "Command Post." Thanks again. This is most encouraging. I sometimes forget that besides prime ministers,there are or will be elections for mayor, etc.
Yeah, aren't the schools where Saddams sons went to pick out little girls to rape? Girls attending school now are probably a bit safer.
Sure, but my point is that Iraq has been a secular country since many years, so attitude toward women was quite modern compared with the situation in for example Saudi Arabia.
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.