Five years and a month ago George W. Bush launched a war to get rid of Saddam and make the Iraqi people’s lives better. How’s that working out?
BAGHDAD — Even as American and Iraqi troops are fighting to establish control of the Sadr City section of this capital, the Iraqi government’s program to restore basic services like electricity, sewage and trash collection is lagging, jeopardizing the effort to win over the area’s wary residents.
For weeks, there have been reports that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is preparing to move ahead with a multimillion-dollar program to rebuild the southern swath of Sadr City, which is currently occupied by Iraqi and American troops.
But almost a month after American and Iraqi forces pushed into the area, there are no signs of reconstruction. Instead, the streets are filled with mounds of trash and bubbling pools of sewage. Many neighborhoods are still without electricity, and many residents are too afraid to brave the cross-fire to seek medical care. Iraqi public works officials, apparently fearful of the fighting, rarely seem to show up at work, and the Iraqi government insists the area is not safe enough for repairs to begin.
No one could have predicted ….
And now Condi’s gone and called Muqtada al Sadr a coward.
How does perfect wrongness play with the oddsmakers in Vegas?
Posted by: tata | April 23, 2008 at 07:01 AM
Were's the cod piece?
Posted by: mandt | April 23, 2008 at 12:35 PM