Iraq reconstruction: 7 of 8 decalared "successes" really failures

[DaveSimmons]

Billions of tax dollars have been sent to Iraq to rebuild hospitals, schools, power plants, sewage systems, etc.

We already knew that many of these projects failed because of corruption, mismanagement, and local civil servants used to collecting their pay for doing nothing.

But there were still many successes too, right? We had to accept some failures, but the successes balanced that out?

Unfortunately, no:
New York Times
"In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle."

"The inspections ranged geographically from northern to southern Iraq and covered projects as varied as a maternity hospital, barracks for an Iraqi special forces unit and a power station for Baghdad International Airport.

At the airport, crucially important for the functioning of the country, inspectors found that while $11.8 million had been spent on new electrical generators, $8.6 million worth were no longer functioning."

. . .


Something to remember if the Bush administration tries to declare the Surge as a "success" as well. Their definition of success is not quite the same as mine.

 

[jpeyton]

The US spends more per year on bullets than on the entire reconstruction effort in Iraq.

And before anyone tries to blame it on the Iraqis:

Curiously, most of the problems seemed unrelated to sabotage stemming from Iraq?s parlous security situation, but instead were the product of poor initial construction, petty looting, a lack of any maintenance and simple neglect.

A case in point was the $5.2 million project undertaken by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to build the special forces barracks in Baghdad. The project was completed in September 2005, but by the time inspectors visited last month, there were numerous problems caused by faulty plumbing throughout the buildings, and four large electrical generators, each costing $50,000, were no longer operating.

KBR/Halliburton and their fellow contractors are pobably cheering. Charge top money to build it once as cheaply as possible, let it rot, then build it again with slightly better quality for twice the cost to pad the 2008 earnings portfolio.

The American taxpayers are getting raped by Bush's cronies hand-over-fist. Iraq is like the Nintendo DS for defense contractors...IT PRINTS MONEY! :laugh:

No wonder Bush doesn't want to pull out. Nobody wants to kill the goose that lays the diamond-encrusted platinum egg.

 

[kage69]

Now that's pretty fuggin disgusting. :|



Gee, I wonder if Bush's appointee methodology had anything to do with these great achievements. What was it that came out just awhile ago, something like some Patrick Henry grads with no accounting or project experience being put in charge of multi-million dollar budgets?

It's simply amazing how inept and F.O.S this admin is. Makes the Nixon group look just swell by comparison. :|

 

[1EZduzit]

Seems to be "intellectually dishonest" to me. No, make that just plain ass crooked.

 

[DealMonkey]

But what about all of those schools we painted?