Hi Hubby,

I think you have exaggerated information and I challenge your source.



"... the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has
graduated and is on active duty."

They are useless and rely on the support of American troops.

"... over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security to their
fellow citizens."

This is Rumsfeld's figure and it has been shown to be grossly exaggerated. There is absolutely no way to substantiate this.

... nearly all of Iraq's 400 courts are functioning.

They probably were before. It depends upon what one means by functioning.

... the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.

Independent of what? Sharia? This is hardly independence.

... on Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518
megawatts - exceeding the prewar average.

Prove it. Show me the source for this bit of misinformation.

... all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes
and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and
secondary schools.

Again, this sounds like misinformation as well. If true, how really functional are they?

... by October 1, Coalition forces had rehab-ed over
1,500 schools - 500 more than scheduled.

I don't believe this either. Show me the source.

... teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former
salaries.

What? Which teachers? American teachers? Where, and how?

... all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are
open.

Many have been destroyed by bombs. This seems also like an inflated State Department figure.

... doctors salaries are at least eight times what
they were under Saddam.

I don't believe that either unless you are talking about a few
American physicians.

... pharmaceutical distribution has gone from
essentially nothing to 700 tons in May to a current
total of 12,000 tons.

What pharmaceuticals? How can anyone realistically know this information? Where does it come from?

... the Coalition has helped administer over 22
million vaccination doses to Iraq's children.

... a Coalition program has cleared over 14,000
kilometers of Iraq's 27,000 kilometers of weed-choked
canals which now irrigate tens of thousands of farms.
This project has created jobs for more than 100,000
Iraqi men and women.

Even if it were true, what kind of work are we talking about here?
Where people actually get paid for their labor? This seems again made up.

... we have restored over three-quarters of prewar
telephone services and over two-thirds of the potable
water production.

That's why Iraqi children are dying of dysentery and other diseases due to the contamination of the water supply.

... there are 4,900 full-service telephone
connections. We expect 50,000 by year-end.

These connections might be available to Americans who are there such as service personnel. But for the Iraqi people?
Give me a break!

... the wheels of commerce are turning. From bicycles
to satellite dishes to cars and trucks, businesses are
coming to life in all major cities and towns.

Baloney! This is errant propaganda.

... 95 percent of all prewar bank customers have
service and first-time customers are opening accounts
daily.

Even if they were, what would the accounts be worth in terms
of expendable income?

... Iraqi banks are making loans to finance
businesses.

... the central bank is fully independent.

Independent of what? Bombs?

... Iraq has one of the worlds most growth-oriented
investment and banking laws.

Iraq has one of the worlds most regressive business practices due to the US corporate takeover of that country.

... Iraq has a single, unified currency for the first
time in 15 years.

And the worth of that currency?

... satellite TV dishes are legal.

They always have been. What goes out under those broadcasts
is a different story.

... foreign journalists aren't on 10-day visas paying
mandatory and extortionate fees to the Ministry of
Information for minders and other government spies.

No they are being shot, kidnapped and beheaded.

... there is no Ministry of Information.

There is no real information coming out of that country.

... there are more than 170 newspapers.

There probably always were. It's what they print that is important.

... you can buy satellite dishes on what seems like
every street corner.

Probably always could.

... foreign journalists (and everyone else) are free
to come and go.

And to get killed.

... a nation that had not one single element -
legislative, judicial or executive - of a
representative government, now does.

Not really. It's a country that will be ruled by Sharia law if
a civil war doesn't break out between Kurds, Shi'ites and Sunnis.

... in Baghdad alone residents have selected 88
advisory councils. Baghdad's first democratic transfer
of power in 35 years happened when the city council
elected its new chairman.

Nothing really democratic is going on there. Who was on the city council and who controlled the elections?

... today in Iraq chambers of commerce, business,
school and professional organizations are electing
their leaders all over the country.

Not many of them if any at all.

... 25 ministers, selected by the most representative
governing body in Iraq's history, run the day-to-day
business of government.

Who says they are the most representative? Representative of whom? Oil interests? US corporations?

... the Iraqi government regularly participates in
international events. Since July the Iraqi government
has been represented in over two dozen international
meetings, including those of the UN General Assembly,
the Arab League, the World Bank and IMF and, today,
the Islamic Conference Summit. The Ministry of Foreign
Affairs announced that it is reopening over 30
Iraqi embassies around the world.

The Iraqi government was always represented in the UN.
In that, it particpated in international events, not in any
democratic way. The same holds true today. Only the Iraqi leaders that have been appointed to serve by US Paul Bremmer's and the like are involved with corporate business practices. As to the opening of Iraqi embassies, I'll believe that when I see it.

... Shia religious festivals that were all but banned,
aren't.

Only the participation of equality for women is excepted.

... for the first time in 35 years, in Karbala
thousands of Shiites celebrate the pilgrimage of the
12th Imam.

So? The Shi'ites are now in control of an Islamic nation.

... the Coalition has completed over 13,000
reconstruction projects, large and small, as part of a
strategic plan for the reconstruction of Iraq.

What are they? Name one that has any real validity. A billion has been squandered by US corporations that will not allow
the Iraqi engineers to take part in these reconstruction projects.

... Uday and Qusay are dead - and no longer feeding
innocent Iraqis to the zoo lions, raping the young
daughters of local leaders to force cooperation,
torturing Iraq's soccer players for losing games, or
murdering critics.

This is all just propaganda based on no factual information.
Saddam's sons are being replaced by a more insidious
faction of Al Quaeda or insurgent militants who will make Saddam look like a choirboy.

... children aren't imprisoned or murdered when their
parents disagree with the government.

They're murdered all the time. There is not much of a government to agree or disagree with.

... political opponents aren't imprisoned, tortured,
executed, maimed, or are forced to watch their
families die for disagreeing with Saddam.

There was Abu Graibh. If the government is so great,
why isn't it being readilly accepted by all Iraqis? As for the "baby incubation" stories, this is not verifiable material.

... millions of longsuffering Iraqis no longer live in
perpetual terror.

Baloney! I'm sorry, this is beyond reason.

... Saudis will hold municipal elections.

They will continue to be undemocratic as they always have been and reduce the role of women to second class citizens. the Wahabbi's will see to that.

... Qatar is reforming education to give more choices
to parents.

What does this mean? Private schools? Come on now.

... Jordan is accelerating market economic reforms.

Accelerating economic downturns.

... the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for the first
time to an Iranian -- a Muslim woman who speaks out
with courage for human rights, for democracy and for
peace.

This has nothing to do with Iraq.

... Saddam is gone.

There will be someone worse to take his place unless we
withdraw US troops from there.

... Iraq is free.

Free to be destroyed by bombs, insurgents and the mounting US casualties of service men and women.


Now that you have been educated and caught up in general terms of what has happened over the past couple of years, you may return to the discussion.

I'm sorry but this "education" sounds like a pipe dream concocted by the Bush team. It has little bearing on fact or reality. And the tooth fairy really exists.

Propaganda reigns supreme.

Frank





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