"The lack of clean water and electricity have proven to be a leading issue"
What need for that is there when you have western guns to buy?
Related: Occupation Iraq: Country in Crisis
Can you imagine? SIX LONG YEARS and NO REBUILDING at all!!!!
And you get a NATO BASE as an EXTRA BENEFIT, Iraqis?
"Iraqis demand better services; Protests show discontent is growing" by Sameer N. Yacoub, Associated Press | October 11, 2009
Demonstrators in Baghdad yesterday chanted slogans - “No water, no electricity in the country of oil and the two rivers.’’ (Khalid Mohammed/ Associated Press)
Yeah, they look really oppressed.
BAGHDAD - Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi said Iraq was carefully coordinating the training and equipping of its forces with NATO and the United States so it could meet its security responsibilities when US combat troops withdraw by Aug. 31, 2010.
I thought it was 2011, jerks (keep reading)!
Iraq has more than 640,000 security personnel, with hundreds of thousands still in need of training and, in some cases, equipment. The US military has said Iraq is behind in the purchase of ships and aircraft as well as building a supply chain to keep its soldiers and police armed and resupplied.
“There is no doubt it affects us,’’ al-Obeidi told reporters during the opening of a new NATO headquarters in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone. Al-Obeidi said any defense cuts next year would likely create an obstacle in training and equipping troops. He said Iraq would have to compensate by “caring about quality rather than quantity.’’
Its budget next year is expected to be about $70 billion, still well below its funding needs. Iraq was twice forced this year to slash its budget from $79 billion to $58.6 billion due to falling oil prices. The lack of clean water and electricity have proven to be a leading issue in January’s national elections for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has campaigned on the issue of improved security. In recent days, though, al-Maliki has said rebuilding infrastructure rather than building up Iraqi forces will take priority during the next budget year.
************Hundreds took to the streets yesterday throughout Iraq to demand open elections and improved public services, revealing a growing discontent among Iraqis that is overshadowing concerns about the ability of Iraqi forces to take over from withdrawing American troops.
I have TYPED IT for YEARS: WE are NEVER LEAVING.
Low oil prices have left the Iraqi government struggling to restore infrastructure after years of neglect, corruption and insurgent attacks, as well as to rebuild their security forces before a planned American withdrawal in 2011.
Yeah, right, we are leaving. Salt shaker, please.
You don't build permanent bases to abandon them.
And now it is 2011? It was 2010 above?
About 200 demonstrators took to the streets in central Baghdad, chanting: “No water, no electricity in the country of oil and the two rivers,’’ a reference to Iraq’s ancient name.
Protester Najim Abid said he and others were calling on the Iraqi government and international aid organizations to take immediate action to improve conditions for Iraqis. “They must step in and save the Iraqi people, who are suffering because of poverty and deprivation,’’ said Abid, 52, a retired government worker.
Hey, we call it GEORGE BUSH'S LIBERATION around here, you ungrateful....
May ALLAH FORGIVE US!
--more--"
This was an extra-adder by my local. I'm tired of searching the web for s*** the Globe ignores. You will just have to trust this is what I am looking at.
"Meanwhile, about 800 people in the southern provinces of Wasit and Basra took to the streets in support of a call by the country's most senior Shiite cleric to hold more open elections."
Related: Occupation Iraq: Rigging Iraq's Election
Strange how the Globe cut that from the same piece, but....
