Reply #322: Let's give Bush credit where credit is due.

[Jack Rabbit]

Gee, and we think Bush is an idiot. However, it takes genius to screw up Iraq more than Saddam did. So let's hand it to the Frat Boy!!

The Nation was also kind enough last week to draw our attention to this piece from the Washington Post. Perhaps Mr. Along and the neocons whose self-serving propaganda he has been posting to this thread for almost a year should read it, since they seem to be unaware of these facts. Ari Berman in The Nation sums it up nicely (scroll down to the Daily Outrage for 11/24):

Epidemics

** 400,000 Iraqi children suffer from chronic diarrhea and dangerous deficiencies of protein, according to a UN development report. Iraq's child malnutrition rate now roughly equals that of Burundi--a war-torn central African nation--and is far above both Uganda and Haiti.

** 60 percent of rural residents and 20 percent of urban dwellers have access to nothing but contaminated drinking water.

** Hepatitis outbreaks have doubled since the war began.

Casualties

** One hundred and six US soldiers died in November, making the not-yet-completed month the deadliest since April's 135 deaths. Forty-one Americans died and 425 were wounded in the battle for Falluja, raising total US killed to 1,227.

** Iraqi civilian casualties range from 15,000-100,000. John Hopkins University estimates the figure at over 40,000 with 90 percent certainty.

Resistance

** According to military statistics, the number of insurgents has quadrupled since last year, from 5,000 to 20,000. A British general places the insurgency at 40-50,000 fighters.

** A confidential Marine report predicted that the insurgency would continue to grow in the run-up to the January 30 election. According to director of reconstruction William Taylor, security "is worse today than it was, and we are having greater difficulties" compared to six weeks ago in cities such as Bagdhad, Falluja, Ramadi, Samarra and Mosul.

Oh, about the reconstruction effort:

** Of the $18.4 billion in reconstruction funds allocated last year by Congress, the US has spent only $1.7 billion.

** Nationwide electricity levels are down 25 percent since the prewar days, and 66 percent lower in Baghdad.

** The value of the Iraqi currency--the Dinar--dropped 25 percent compared to the US dollar in the past year (which didn't have a great year itself!)

And finally, there is the little matter of how this is going down in Iraq:

** Only 33 percent of Iraqis think they're better off now than before the war, as a Gallup poll discovered.

** Just 36 percent believe the interim government shares their values.

** 94 percent say Baghdad is more dangerous than it was before the war.

** 66.6 believe the US occupation could start a civil war.

** 80 percent want the US to leave directly after the January elections.

How does that jive with what Mr. Moore (Bremer's old buddy) says in post 301?

This mess was predictable, and was predicted by the Left prior to the invasion. So how was the Left wrong? After nearly one year, Mr. Along has failed to answer that question.

Mr. Along continues to hold out hope for the high-sounding talk about bringing democracy to Iraq. We might call that the great neocon-game. As American troops entered Baghdad, the oil ministry was secured and hospitals were looted. That should tell anyone who has been wondering where the neocons' priorities lay in Iraq, and it isn't with the people (in case Mr. Along has forgotten, that is what the demo in democracy means). It was plain to the Left before the invasion that resources, not democracy, was the concern of the neocons.

If the Left had been wrong, we wouldn't have this state affairs. But we do have this state of affairs, brought to you by bone-headed right wing ideologues. The Left was right.