Myth, Truth and U.S. Re-Construction -
Bill Bixby
right - One of Saddam's suicide bombers !!
"Daniel J. Lavigne" <tax...@taxrefusal.com> wrote in message
Iraqi Girl Blog 09/04/03:
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*Ts pretend my cousin is a dolt. Letâ*Ts pretend he hasnâ*Tt been
working
with bridges for over 17 years. Letâ*Ts pretend he didnâ*Tt work on
replacing at least 20
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*T
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*Talaq 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*Tt 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*Tt 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*T way back in April.)
Well, of course itâ*Ts 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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