Friday, November 20, 2009
Your tax dollars at work
Having been so much a part of blowing what crap was left out of Iraq after a 10 year killer embargo, the US felt compelled to rebuild Iraq. To that end much money was spent. And what did we get?
In its largest reconstruction effort since the Marshall Plan, the United States government has spent $53 billion for relief and reconstruction in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, building tens of thousands of hospitals, water treatment plants, electricity substations, schools and bridges.So many of the skilled and educated professional needed for these projects fled the country in the anarchic aftermath of Bush War II. The result is so many projects are just empty shells. Maybe enough will return in time to use some of the facilities before they waste away. But all is not lost.
But there are growing concerns among American officials that Iraq will not be able to adequately maintain the facilities once the Americans have left, potentially wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and jeopardizing Iraq’s ability to provide basic services to its people.
The projects run the gamut — from a cutting-edge, $270 million water treatment plant in Nasiriya that works at a fraction of its intended capacity because it is too sophisticated for Iraqi workers to operate, to a farmers’ market that farmers cannot decide how to share, to a large American hospital closed immediately after it was handed over to Iraq because the government was unable to supply it with equipment, a medical staff or electricity.
And whether or not the American-built health centers and power plants are ever used as intended, the American companies that won the lion’s share of rebuilding contracts from the federal government have been paid.Phew! Had me worried there for a moment.
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