Myth, Truth and U.S. Re-Construction - A Different Look at EREI
Daniel J. Lavigne
A different look at EREI or money invested money returned.
Story below.
Bernhard
Upland, CA
Myths, Truth And U.S. Re-Construction
Iraqi Girl Blog 09/04/03:
The Myth: Iraqis, prior to occupation, lived in little beige tents set up on
the sides of
little dirt roads all over Baghdad. The men and boys would ride to school on
their camels,
donkeys and goats. These schools were larger versions of the home units and
for every 100
students, there was one turban-wearing teacher who taught the boys rudimentary
math (to count
the flock) and reading. Girls and women sat at home, in black burkas, making
bread and taking
care of 10-12 children.
The Truth: Iraqis lived in houses with running water and electricity.
Thousands of them own
computers. Millions own VCRs and VCDs. Iraq has sophisticated bridges,
recreational centers,
clubs, restaurants, shops, universities, schools, etc. Iraqis love fast cars (especially
German cars) and the Tigris is full of little motorboats that are used for
everything from
fishing to water-skiing.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that most people choose to ignore the little
prefix "re" in
the words "rebuild" and "reconstruct". For your information, "re" is of Latin
origin and
generally means "again" or "anew".
In other words, there was something there in the first place. We have hundreds
of bridges. We
have one of the most sophisticated network of highways in the region: you can
get from Busrah,
in the south, to Mosul, in the north, without once having to travel upon those
little, dusty,
dirt roads they show you on Fox News. We had a communications system so
advanced, it took the
Coalition of the Willing three rounds of bombing, on three separate nights, to
damage the
Maâ*™moun Communications Tower and silence our telephones.
Yesterday, I read how it was going to take up to $90 billion to rebuild Iraq.
Bremer was
shooting out numbers about how much it was going to cost to replace buildings
and bridges and
electricity, etc.
Listen to this little anecdote. One of my cousins works in a prominent
engineering company in
Baghdad â*“ we'll call the company H. This company is well known for designing
and building
bridges all over Iraq. My cousin, a structural engineer, is a bridge freak. He
spends hours
talking about pillars and trusses and steel structures to anyone who'll
listen.
As May was drawing to a close, his manager told him that someone from the CPA [Coalition
Provisional Authority] wanted the company to estimate the building costs of
replacing the New
Diyala Bridge on the South East end of Baghdad. He got his team together, they
went out and
assessed the damage, decided it wasn't too extensive, but it would be costly.
They did the
necessary tests and analyses (mumblings about soil composition and water
depth, expansion
joints and girders) and came up with a number they tentatively put forward:
$300,000. This
included new plans and designs, raw materials (quite cheap in Iraq), labor, contractors,
travel expenses, etc.
Letâ*™s pretend my cousin is a dolt. Letâ*™s pretend he hasnâ*™t been working
with bridges
for over 17 years. Letâ*™s pretend he didnâ*™t work on replacing at least 20
of the 133
bridges damaged during the first Gulf War. Letâ*™s pretend heâ*™s wrong and
the cost of
rebuilding this bridge is four times the number they estimated â*“ letâ*™s
pretend it will
actually cost $1,200,000. Letâ*™s just use our imagination.
A week later, the New Diyala Bridge contract was given to an American company.
This particular
company estimated the cost of rebuilding the bridge would be around â*“ brace
yourselves â*“
$50 million!
Something you should know about Iraq: we have over 130,000 engineers. More
than half of these
engineers are structural engineers and architects. Thousands of them were
trained outside of
Iraq in Germany, Japan, America, Britain and other countries. Thousands of
others worked with
some of the foreign companies that built various bridges, buildings and
highways in Iraq. The
majority of them are more than proficient - some of them are brilliant.
Iraqi engineers had to rebuild Iraq after the first Gulf War in 1991 when the
â*˜Coalition of
the Willingâ*™ was composed of over 30 countries actively participating in
bombing Baghdad
beyond recognition. They had to cope with rebuilding bridges and buildings
that were
originally built by foreign companies, they had to get around a lack of raw
materials that we
used to import from abroad, they had to work around a vicious blockade
designed to damage
whatever infrastructure was left after the war â*“ they truly had to rebuild
Iraq. And
everything had to be made sturdy, because, well, we were always under the
threat of war.
Over a hundred of the 133 bridges were rebuilt, hundreds of buildings and
factories were
replaced, communications towers were rebuilt, new bridges were added,
electrical power grids
were replacedâ*| things were functioning. Everything wasnâ*™t perfect â*“ but
we were working
on it.
And Iraqis arenâ*™t easy to please. Buildings cannot just be made functionary.
They have to
have artistic touches - a carved pillar, an intricately designed dome,
something uniqueâ*| not
necessarily classy or subtle, but different. You can see it all over Baghdad
â*“ fashionable
homes with plate glass windows, next to classic old â*˜Baghdadiâ*™ buildings, gaudy
restaurants standing next to classy little cafes, mosques with domes so
colorful and detailed
they look like glamorous Faberge eggs â*“ all done by Iraqis.
My favorite reconstruction project was the Muâ*™alaq Bridge over the Tigris.
It is a
suspended bridge that was designed and built by a British company. In 1991 it
was bombed and
everyone just about gave up on ever being able to cross it again. By 1994, it
was up again,
exactly as it was â*“ without British companies, with Iraqi expertise. One of
the art schools
decided that although it wasnâ*™t the most sophisticated bridge in the world,
it was going to
be the most glamorous. On the day it was opened to the public, it was covered
with hundreds of
painted flowers in the most outrageous colors â*“ all over the pillars, the
bridge itself, the
walkways along the sides of the bridge. People came from all over Baghdad just
to stand upon
it and look down into the Tigris.
So instead of bringing in thousands of foreign companies that are going to
want billions of
dollars, why arenâ*™t the Iraqi engineers, electricians and laborers being
taken advantage
of? Thousands of people who have no work would love to be able to rebuild
Iraqâ*| no one is
being given a chance.
The reconstruction of Iraq is held above our heads like a promise and a
threat. People roll
their eyes at reconstruction because they know (Iraqis are wily) that these dubious
reconstruction projects are going to plunge the country into a national debt
only comparable
to that of America. A few already rich contractors are going to get richer,
Iraqi workers are
going to be given a pittance and the unemployed Iraqi public can stand on the
sidelines and
look at the glamorous buildings being built by foreign companies.
I always say this war is about oil. It is. But it is also about huge
corporations that are
going to make billions off of reconstructing what was damaged during this war.
Can you say
Halliburton? (Which, by the way, got the very first contracts to replace the
damaged oil
infrastructure and put out â*˜oil firesâ*™ way back in April.)
Well, of course itâ*™s going to take uncountable billions to rebuild Iraq, Mr.
Bremer, if the
contracts are all given to foreign companies! Or perhaps the numbers are this frightening
because Ahmad Al-Chalabi is the one doing the books â*“ he is the math expert,
after all.
Former exile and Pentagon favorite Ahmad Al-Chalabi was charged in absentia
for embezzling
millions from a bank he operated in Jordan.
This entry of Girlblog was found at: http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
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