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FOR
THOSE WHO MAY BE GETTING DISCOURAGED BY ALL THE NEGATIVE NEWS ABOUT
IRAQ:
"Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May
1..."
...the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has graduated and is on
active duty·
... over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security to their fellow citizens.
...nearly all of Iraq's 400 courts are functioning.
... the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.
...on Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts-exceeding
the pre-war average.
...all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are
open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.
... by October 1, Coalition forces had rehabbed over 1,500 schools - 500
more than their target.
... teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.
...all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.
...doctors' salaries are at least eight times what they were under
Saddam.
...pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700
tons in May to a current total of 12,000 tons.
...the Coalition has helped administer over 22 million vaccination doses
to Iraq's children.
...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.
...we have restored over three-quarters of pre-war telephone services
and over two-thirds of the potable water production.
... there are 4,900 full-service connections. We expect 50,000 by
January first.
...the wheels of commerce are turning. From bicycles to satellite dishes
to cars and trucks, businesses are coming to life in all major cities
and towns.
...95 percent of all pre-war bank customers have service and first-time
customers are opening accounts daily.
... Iraqi banks are making loans to finance businesses.
...the central bank is fully independent.
... Iraq has one of the world's most growth-oriented investment and
banking laws.
... Iraq (has) a single, unified currency for the first time in 15
years.
...satellite dishes are legal.
...foreign journalists aren't on 10-day visas paying mandatory and
extortionate fees to the Ministry of Information for "minders"
and other government spies.
... there is no Ministry of Information.
...there are more than 170 newspapers.
... you can buy satellite dishes on what seems like every street corner.
... foreign journalists and everyone else are free to come and go.
...a nation that had not one single element-legislative, judicial or
executive-- of a representative government, does.
...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.
...today in Iraq chambers of commerce, business, school and professional
organizations are electing their leaders all over the country.
... 25 ministers, selected by the most representative governing body in
Iraq's history, run the day-to-day business of government.
...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.
...Shia religious festivals that were all but banned, aren't.
... for the first time in 35 years, in Karbala thousands of Shiites
celebrate the pilgrimage of the 12th Imam.
...the Coalition has completed over 13,000 reconstruction projects,
large and small, as part of (a) strategic plan for the reconstruction of
Iraq.
...Uday and Queasy are dead - and no longer feeding innocent Iraqis to
his zoo lions, raping the young daughters of local leaders to force
cooperation, torturing Iraq's soccer players for losing
games...murdering critics.
...children aren't imprisoned or murdered when their parents disagree
with the government.
...political opponents aren't imprisoned, tortured, executed, maimed, or
are forced to watch their families die for disagreeing with Saddam.
...millions of longsuffering Iraqis no longer live in perpetual terror.
...Saudis will hold municipal elections.
... Qatar is reforming education to give more choices to parents.
... Jordan is accelerating market economic reforms.
... the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for the first time to an Iranian
--
a Muslim woman who speaks out with courage for human rights, for
democracy and for peace.
...he has not faltered or failed.
...Saddam is gone.
Since... Iraq is free.
NOT BAD FOR AN ADMINISTRATION: WITH NO PLAN NO DIRECTION WAS GOING TO BE
SLAUGHTERED GOING INTO Baghdad WAS ONLY IN THIS FOR THE OIL. |