So you think you know how much of a mess Iraq is?

[bloom]

Have you read this yet?

http://harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html

>The problem is that governments, even neoconservative governments, rarely get the chance to prove their sacred theory right: despite their enormous ideological advances, even George Bush’s Republicans are, in their own minds, perennially sabotaged by meddling Democrats, intractable unions, and alarmist environmentalists.

Iraq was going to change all that. In one place on Earth, the theory would finally be put into practice in its most perfect and uncompromised form. A country of 25 million would not be rebuilt as it was before the war; it would be erased, disappeared. In its place would spring forth a gleaming showroom for laissez-faire economics, a utopia such as the world had never seen. Every policy that liberates multinational corporations to pursue their quest for profit would be put into place: a shrunken state, a flexible workforce, open borders, minimal taxes, no tariffs, no ownership restrictions. The people of Iraq would, of course, have to endure some short-term pain: assets, previously owned by the state, would have to be given up to create new opportunities for growth and investment. Jobs would have to be lost and, as foreign products flooded across the border, local businesses and family farms would, unfortunately, be unable to compete. But to the authors of this plan, these would be small prices to pay for the economic boom that would surely explode once the proper conditions were in place, a boom so powerful the country would practically rebuild itself.<


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x897843

[K-W]

1. I heard them discussing this on the minority report this weekend.

Very interesting stuff.

[ThomCat]

5. Interesting?

Scary as hell is how I would describe it.

[Jacobin]

2. Good thing we have at least been running interference on these

dingbats in the U.S..

I suppose they won't be happy until the u.s is like Iraq.

:shrug:

[papau]

3. Key Bush Assertions About Iraq in Dispute

Reuters reports that Bush assertions have met with skepticism from key lawmakers, congressional aides and experts, and Pentagon documents, given to lawmakers and obtained by Reuters, paint a more complicated picture.

Reuters does seem less biased than AP WIRE :-)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&ncid=584&e=5&u=/nm/20040926/pl_nm/iraq_usa_assertions_dc

Key Bush Assertions About Iraq in Dispute

Sun Sep 26, 4:39 PM ET


By Adam Entous

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - Many of President Bush's assertions about progress in Iraq -- from police training and reconstruction to preparations for January elections -- are in dispute, according to internal Pentagon documents, lawmakers and key congressional aides on Sunday.

Bush used the visit last week by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to make the case that "steady progress" is being made in Iraq to counter warnings by his Democratic presidential rival, Sen. John Kerry, that the situation in reality is deteriorating.

Bush touted preparations for national elections in January, saying Iraq's electoral commission is up and running and told Americans on Saturday that "United Nations electoral advisers are on the ground in Iraq."

He said nearly 100,000 "fully trained and equipped" Iraqi soldiers, police officers and other security personnel are already at work, and that would rise to 125,000 by the end of this year.

(A BUSH LIE - "The documents show that of the nearly 90,000 currently in the police force, only 8,169 have had the full eight-week academy training. Another 46,176 are listed as "untrained," and it will be July 2006 before the administration reaches its new goal of a 135,000-strong, fully trained police force. Six Army battalions have had "initial training," while 57 National Guard battalions, 896 soldiers in each, are still being recruited or "awaiting equipment." Just eight Guard battalions have reached "initial (operating) capability," and the Pentagon acknowledged the Guard's performance has been "uneven."Training has yet to begin for the 4,800-man civil intervention force, which will help counter a deadly insurgency. And none of the 18,000 border enforcement guards have received any centralized training to date, despite earlier claims they had, according to Democrats on the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee.They estimated that 22,700 Iraqi personnel have received enough basic training to make them "minimally effective at their tasks," in contrast to the 100,000 figure cited by Bush.")

[proud patriot]

4. I sent this to Mike Malloy also

:hi:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

6. I just saw the new repug attack ad.... this is outrageous... Move-On

needs to get Cheney's frikkin voting record from the late 80's and early 90's and plaster the shit all over the GD television. Get his frikkin voting record in the public's face.

http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docid=177
>>Cheney: The Army, as I indicated in my earlier testimony, recommended to me that we keep a robust Apache helicopter program going forward, AH-64; . . . I forced the Army to make choices. I said, "You can't have all three. We don't have the money for all three." So I recommended that we cancel the AH-64 program two years out. That would save $1.6 billion in procurement and $200 million in spares over the next five years.

Two years later Cheney's Pentagon budget also proposed elimination of further production of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle as well. It was among 81 Pentagon programs targeted for termination, including the F-14 and F-16 aircraft. "Cheney decided the military already has enough of these weapons," the Boston Globe reported at the time.

Does that make Cheney an opponent of "weapons vital to winning the war on terror?" Of course not. But by the Bush campaign's logic, Cheney himself would be vulnerable to just such a charge, and so would Bush's father, who was president at the time.<<

[hlthe2b]

7. Incredible..... I encourage all to take the time to read this...

Not that it will surpise too many here, but it is still eye-opening...

[TrogL]

8. *sigh* I wish there was a way to explain this to Joe Sixpack

Wasn't an election lost because one side was labelled "war profiteers"?

[Disturbed]

9. Iraq had Universal Health Care...

under Saddam but here in Amerika the Govt. says that we cannot afford it. Why not???

[LibertyorDeath]

10. Yes & it's an amazing piece of Journalism IMO

Think I'll read it again.

[Nordic]

11. ah yes. Awesome article, glad it's online now

it's something every American should read.