Did You Know?

[DipStick]

Did you know that 47 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq?
 
Did you know that the Iraqi government employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?
 
Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 schools are now under construction and 38 new schools have been built in Iraq?
 
Did you know that Iraq's higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers?
 
Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2004 for the re-established Fulbright program?
 
Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational? They have 5- 100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels and a navel infantry regiment.
 
Did you know that Iraqi Air Force consists of three operation squadrons, 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport aircraft which operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 bell jet rangers?
 
Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?
 
Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained and equipped police officers?
 
Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3500 new officers each 8 weeks?
 
Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq? They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.
 
Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?
 
Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?
 
Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158%?
 
Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consist of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?
 
Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004?
 
Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a recent televised debate recently?
 
OF COURSE YOU DIDN'T KNOW! OUR MEDIA WOULDN'T TELL US!
 
Instead of shouting these accomplishments from every rooftop, they would rather show photos of what a few malcontent soldiers have done in prisons, in many cases never disclosing the circumstances surrounding the events.
 
Instead of showing our love for our country, we get photos of flag burning incidents at Abu Ghraib and people throwing snowballs at presidential motorcades.
 
The lack of accentuating the positive in Iraq serves only one purpose. It undermines the world's perception of the United States and our soldiers.
 
ASHAMED OF MY FELLOW AMERICANS WHO WOULD RATHER SEE TERRORISM SUCCEED THAN A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT? I AM.

[Boroda]

Originally posted by DipStick
Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?

 
Out of 11 million total population before the war? LOL!

Originally posted by DipStick
Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158%?

Who's the cellular provider in Iraq? Another monopoly? Who's the owner? And what's the standard, GSM? CDMA?
 

Originally posted by DipStick
Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consist of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?
 

Independent media? Is Iraq an only country in a whole world (other then PRC ) to have it?! How many "free" media enterprises propagate for Iraqi resistance?

Sorry for sarcasm...

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

That reads like a chain letter.

Is it?
-SW

[rpm]

Did you know that $100 Million dollars worth of U.S. $100 bills, all withdrawn from the DFI account at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, collected in packs worth $1.6 million and flown to Baghdad for use in establishing government ministries and paying contractors is missing and unaccounted for? Of course you don't.

[SunKing]

did you know we've all gotten that same junk email.

[john9001]

no no no dip, don't you know that the USA is in a "bogged down in a quagmire"?

[Gunslinger]

All that is great but really what the Iraqis want more than anything.....


Electricity that's on 98% of the time and clean running water.

[rpm]

Very, very true, Guns. A reliable electricity grid and safe running water would go a long way to winning their hearts and minds.

[Boroda]

Originally posted by rpm
Very, very true, Guns. A reliable electricity grid and safe running water would go a long way to winning their hearts and minds.

They already had all this stuff before the bombing began

I imagine someone bombing Moscow to a stage when there's no electricity, no water, nothing, and then occupying the city, only to promise that they'll bring it all back in several years, only if Muscovites will cease blowing up their convoys and collaborators.

I speak about Moscow because in the province - it looks like just now they understood that Germans were defeated 60 years ago and at last they may quit blowing up trains.

Well, some of them still don't understand it and keep fighting "occupants": http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/06/16/trainaccid.shtml



Only mind games...

[Gunslinger]

Originally posted by Boroda
They already had all this stuff before the bombing began

I imagine someone bombing Moscow to a stage when there's no electricity, no water, nothing, and then occupying the city, only to promise that they'll bring it all back in several years, only if Muscovites will cease blowing up their convoys and collaborators.

I speak about Moscow because in the province - it looks like just now they understood that Germans were defeated 60 years ago and at last they may quit blowing up trains.

Well, some of them still don't understand it and keep fighting "occupants": http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/06/16/trainaccid.shtml



Only mind games...

actually the electricity and water were "rationed" pre-invasion.  Sadam used that (among other things) to keep his populace under control.

It was never fully restored after the first gulf war.

[Boroda]

Originally posted by Gunslinger
actually the electricity and water were "rationed" pre-invasion.  Sadam used that (among other things) to keep his populace under control.

It was never fully restored after the first gulf war.

Here in Russia in many cities that are in better climate then Iraq we have water "rationed", like no water at daytime. It's quite different from having all water-supply infrastructure blown up by bombs from stratosphere on laser-guidance. Even during the few months (July 22 - October 22 1941 IIRC), when Moscow was bombed, there were no severe problems with water or electricity, subway was working and life went on. Now the times changed... You literally bomb them into a stone age from a developed industrial society. They felt exactly like you will (Boroda crosses himself because even the thought is painfull) if you'll get bombed for several years, not months like Moscow was in 1941.

[john9001]

i'm sorry , i must disagree, the infrastructure in iraq was a total disaster BEFORE gulf war #1, saddam robbed his people of every thing , it takes a lot of money to build 27 marble palaces,and buy gold plated guns and sports cars for your crazy kids

the US tried not to hit the elect and water systems, what the US did not know was the systems were already junk.

[VOR]

Gunslinger is correct. Electricity and water were the two gripes I heard the most out of the locals I dealt with.

Contrary to popular belief, public work facilities in Mosul at least weren't blown up in military actions, and I don't think Uncle Saddam used them as a crowd control tool or at least I never heard it mentioned. What I did hear was the facilities (electric in particular) were very old and were very shoddy even when they were new. (There's a serious overall quality control problem over there that you'd have to see to believe. Even in Uncle Saddam's Mosul palace, the steps are unevenly spaced in several places. )

Anyway, the electric plant that serviced the city could only run for a few hours at a time before the cantankerous thingies would overheat and start smoking, so they'd shut it down to let it cool off and put out a fire here and there. This is without mentioning all the old, old damaged wiring used to carry the current to the end users...

We spent ALOT of time out on the town doing the hearts and minds thing. (Schools, broadcast facilities, and marketplaces mostly.) Mosul University became a pretty familiar place..top-notch engineering programs, but you have to walk up the crooked steps to get to admissions LOL. And, they only threw grenades at us once, so I guess we were doing something right...

This info is 2 years old, and I haven't bothered keeping up with Iraqi public affairs since then so things may have changed.

[DREDIOCK]

Aint nuthin like a first hand account.
Thanks for the post VOR

[Gunslinger]

VOR,

I saw a pic of a telephone frame in Iraq and nearly crapped my pants.  I wish I still had this pic but it just had splices and wires runnin everywere about 10 ft high.  100 pairs 50 pairs 500 pairs it looked like a big ole box of spagetti.

In a situation like that it's not really salvagable and cheaper just to build new ones.