Very good news. Thanks for posting. Go Iraqi FReedom lovers!
Related article, originally from the Washington Times but I found it in some other publication:
Rebuilding In Iraq Tops 4,000 Projects
http://nahrain.com/d/news/06/11/21/nhr1121b.html
When and if the smoke ever clears in Iraq, Pentagon officials say the world finally will see a minor miracle.
"Most Americans don't understand something equivalent to the Marshall Plan has been accomplished in Iraq," said Dean G. Popps, principal assistant secretary of the Army for acquisitions, logistics and technology.
Mr. Popps said it is first important to understand what the rebuilding team inherited. U.S. intelligence knew little about the actual state of Iraq's energy infrastructure and social service network. When the Army Corps of Engineers got on the ground, there was shock:
•The three regional sewage treatments plants in greater Baghdad did not work; raw waste poured into the Tigris River and downstream through villages. Sadr City, the impoverished Shi'ite slum repressed by the ruling Sunni Ba'ath Party, lacked any sewage system. "Some slam the Americans because there is sewage in Sadr City," said an incredulous Mr. Popps. "Please."
•Few towns had a central supply of clean water.
•The electrical grid suffered under 1950s technology and disrepair. Saddam Hussein starved the rest of the country of power to give the capital of 6 million about 20 hours a day.
•The country lacked any primary health care facilities; hospitals and schools were run down and lacked supplies. New hospitals had not been built in 20 years. More than half the public health centers remained closed. Of 13,000 schools, more than 10,000 needed significant renovations.
The Pentagon in 2003 summoned American firms to get reconstruction started in the absence of Iraqi ministries that could supervise and a private sector that was in shambles under Saddam's totalitarian rule.