Iraq Rebuilding Effort Reflects U.S. Failure

Re “Millions Said Going to Waste in Iraq Utilities,” April 10: Billions of American dollars were spent on rebuilding 40 Iraqi water and sewage plants plus 19 power facilities. None are being operated properly by the locals and all are falling into ruin.

Saturday, tens of thousands of Iraqis massed in Baghdad to chant “death to America” and demand our departure. After two years and the loss of more than 1,500 American lives -- as well as untold Iraqis -- these actions reflect the tragic consequence of President Bush’s ill-advised and ineptly executed attempt to “democratize” a country ignorant of its meaning.

Our casualties, national debt, gas prices and the enmity of former allies soar while Bush and his double-talking apologists blindly ignore the obvious: Democracy earned is democracy understood and hopefully practiced.

John Holmstrom

Hollywood

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So now the Iraqis won’t maintain their own water supply? Can we please get the heck out of there and put an end to this idiot invasion? And then can we please put an end to this administration?

Timothy Wawrzeniak

Channel Islands Harbor

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Talk about blaming the victim. In the first U.S. invasion of Iraq, the electricity grid was specifically targeted for destruction. Afterward, the Iraqis rebuilt the system in just three months. After the second invasion, George W. Bush had U.S. companies do the rebuilding. Two years later, the system is not even up to prewar levels.

Following the invasion, Bush fired 30,000 of Iraq’s most skilled engineers, ministry officials, etc. because they were Baath Party members.

American companies were brought in along with foreign workers -- bypassing Iraqis who had run and worked the systems for decades. Bechtel spent the first vital months in Iraq doing an assessment, not rebuilding. Bechtel finally built facilities foreign to the Iraqis who are now to run them.

President Bush and Bechtel have the gall to blame the Iraqis for a failure that would have been avoided had the Iraqis done the reconstruction in the first place.

Success now depends on ending the corporate and military invasion of Iraq and turning enough money directly over to the Iraqis to run the systems and rebuild the nation themselves.

Antonia Juhasz

Author and Policy Analyst

Foreign Policy In Focus

San Francisco