At CPA, progress is our
most important product.
Posted on 10/19/2003 7:55:05 AM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl
Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...t
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...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 12th 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-----
I would argue that the Iraqis are indeed free. They might not all know how to use that freedom yet, though. I have read the stories about how American troops get frustrated because the Iraqis tend not to make decisions. They wait to be told what to do.
We'd probably all be like that if we'd lived for 35 years in a country where you could be tortured and/or killed for making the wrong decision.
I think the most important progress is in being able to turn over more of the security functions to the Iraqis. That can't come fast enough, but it is coming along.
At CPA, progress is our
most important product.
Bookmarking...
Disregard the Freepmail note, lol. Playing catch up w/ posts and usually behind. (^;
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
Most of these facts were reported at a public CPA press briefing on Oct. 9 by L. Paul Bremer on the 6 month anniversary of Baghdad Liberation Day ~ transcripts available since (and new transcripts of other completed good works posted regularly, at the DoD, and CPA, and CENTCOM websites).
The world should have been informed of these accomplishments as our troops completed each mission along the way ~ from the beginning. Certainly, our troops should have expected that America's free (thanks to our troops past and present) press would inform their fellow Americans back home about the facts presented at the important Oct. 9 CPA briefing no later than Oct. 10.
(^:
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