Progress You Won't Likely Hear About

Now that it seems that most everyone has tired of American involvement in Iraq, it's a good time to point out some of the good we've accomplished there.

Under the supervision of the Army Corps of Engineers, electric grids, health care centers, schools, water and sewage treatment facilities, and police stations have been refurbished or built from scratch. This huge program has been extremely successful, while receiving largely negative press coverage with an emphasis on corruption and mismanagement.  But the latest assessment from Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, notes that the vast majority of projects have “proceeded as required.”

Popps reveals a critical factor not frequently discussed in the media.  US intelligence knew Saddam had not adequately maintained Iraq’s infrastructure, but it turned out that they wildly underestimated the decrepit state of Saddam’s Iraq.  The Corps of Engineers were stunned to find out that,

• The three regional sewage treatments plants in greater Baghdad did not work; raw waste poured into the Tigris River and downstream through villages.

• Sadr City, the impoverished Shi’ite slum repressed by the ruling Sunni Ba’ath Party, lacked any sewage system.  [“Some slam the Americans because there is sewage in Sadr City,” said an incredulous Mr. Popps. “Please.”]

• Few towns had a central supply of clean water.

• The electrical grid suffered under 1950s technology and disrepair. Saddam Hussein starved the rest of the country of power to give the capital of 6 million about 20 hours a day.

• The country lacked any primary health care facilities; .. new hospitals had not been built in 20 years.

Some of the accomplishments so far:

• Six new primary care facilities, with 66 more under construction; 11 hospitals renovated

• More than 800 schools fixed up; more than 300 police stations and facilities and 248 border control forts.

• Added 407,000 cubic meters per day of water treatment; a new sewage-treatment system for Basra; work on Baghdad’s three plants continues.

• Oil production exceeds the 2002 level of 2 million barrels a day by 500,000. [emphasis mine]

• The Ministry of Electricity now sends power to Baghdad for four to eight hours a day, and 10 to 12 for the rest of the country.

• Iraqis are now free to buy consumer items such as generators, which provide some homes with power around-the-clock.

These are all in addition to, of course, giving the Iraqis their freedom and thus allowing them to try and create a country on their own -- ugly as that process may be.  Oh, and that intermittent power in Baghdad?  It is true that before the American-led invasion, Baghdad had power 24 hours a day.  But that was at the expense of the rural areas which got none. 

Since then, Baghdad has been made to share "its" electricity with the entire country.  Nonetheless, power generation is greater now than before the War. I can't say that if this story were more widely reported it would mean greater support for America's continued involvement in Iraq, but it certainly wouldn't be seen as the complete waste of time and lives that passes for the conventional wisdom these days.