Rebuilt Iraq Projects Found Crumbling

[SHRED]

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WTF are "we" doing in Iraq?

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Rebuilt Iraq Projects Found Crumbling
By JAMES GLANZ

In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.

The United States has previously admitted, sometimes under pressure from federal inspectors, that some of its reconstruction projects have been abandoned, delayed or poorly constructed. But this is the first time inspectors have found that projects officially declared a success — in some cases, as little as six months before the latest inspections — were no longer working properly.

The inspections ranged geographically from northern to southern Iraq and covered projects as varied as a maternity hospital, barracks for an Iraqi special forces unit and a power station for Baghdad International Airport.

At the airport, crucially important for the functioning of the country, inspectors found that while $11.8 million had been spent on new electrical generators, $8.6 million worth were no longer functioning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/world/middleeast/29reconstruct.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

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[bigtree]

1. we can't provide support for Iraq indefinitely

Wolfowitz said Iraq's oil revenues would take care of all of it. Turns out, the U.S. taxpayer took care of it, along with Wolfowitz's paycheck

[karlrschneider]

2. It's a cash flow kind of thing. 25 years ago I redesigned a part for an optical machine

that normally had to be replaced or rebuilt every 6 months or so. My version was intended to last longer. It lasted so MUCH longer, I never had a repeat order. Not a great way to maximize profits...