Irak 26

Le Monde bericht over het economisch failliet van de Irak bezetting: 'The confession came Thursday in Washington. As the Bush administration prepares to ask Congress for a supplementary expense budget to cover the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came before the Senate Finance Committee to explain that the Iraqi situation was improving in spite of all the difficulties. Ms. Rice was caught out in mid-flight by the Democratic Senator from North Dakota: "The Inspector General for Iraqi construction told us the opposite a few days ago," declared Kent Conrad. "We have the Inspector General saying things are getting worse even though we have provided a lot of money. Who are we to believe?" The Secretary of State mumbled. Then she had to admit the facts. The facts are terrible. Inspector General Stuart Bowen came before the Senate February 8. Nominated by Congress at the end of 2004 to put some order into the delays, the chaos, the fraud, and the seepage that characterized the first months after the American military victory, Mr. Bowen acknowledged that "changes which occurred, notably security conditions, have changed perspectives." The gap between the reconstruction objectives settled upon after Saddam Hussein's overthrow in 2003 and reality only continue to grow. Of the 136 planned water projects, only 49, or 36%, have been completed. "Most of the purification, irrigation and damming projects have had to be abandoned." A total of 2,200 megawatts of supplementary electric capacity have been built, while 3,400 megawatts were necessary. Consequences: Infrastructure has deteriorated compared to the Saddam Hussein era and critical services offered to the population are inferior to what they were. Less electricity is produced and current is only available 3.7 hours a day in Baghdad, compared to 16-24 hours before the war. It's a little better in the rest of the country: 10 hours compared to 4 to 8 hours. Only a third of the population has access to potable water (8.25 million) versus half under Saddam (12.9 million). Five million people have sewer access compared to 6.2 million before. The heaviest failure involves oil: production has only reached 2 million barrels a day (other estimates suggest 1.7 million) although it was 2.58 million previously. Fortunately, with crude prices up to 60 dollars a barrel, revenues have followed.' Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022006H.shtml Of in het Frans: http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3232,36-742714,0.html