From
Perc's ABC News article, I extract a few things by way of providing a somewhat different focus, which focus is the basis for the conclusions I draw:
Security
Quote:U.S. to Speed Up Training for Iraqi Security Forces
By Richard C. Paddock
Times Staff Writer
November 2, 2003
he U.S.-led coalition will accelerate the training of Iraqi security forces to help combat an increasing number of attacks targeting police and civilians, Coalition Provisional Authority head L. Paul Bremer III said Saturday ... By next September, more than 200,000 Iraqis will be serving as police officers, soldiers and border guards, if Congress approves funds sought by President Bush, Bremer said ...
... Bremer insisted that the most important element of the coalition's approach to security was to encourage Iraqis to play a greater role. When he took over in May, he noted, there were no Iraqi police officers on the streets. Now there are 50,000, he said. The coalition has also reopened 150 prisons and more than 300 courts shut by the war, he said ...
... After the car bombings Monday, rumors had spread throughout the city that terrorists would launch more attacks this weekend. The threats were supposedly contained in leaflets distributed around the capital, but no one interviewed had actually seen the handbills.
The threats were widely reported on Arab TV stations, and some Iraqis began calling the day "Bloody Saturday." At Baghdad University, only half the students showed up for class, officials said. Shops and government offices appeared unaffected, and the streets were filled with traffic as usual.
Some high school and elementary school students feared that their schools would be singled out because they had received assistance or supplies from American agencies.
"We heard that my school would be the first to be attacked," said Ahmed Mahdi, 15, whose high school was shut down for the day. "I'm afraid of what will happen in the coming days. I don't like it. I prefer to be in school."
Many teachers were frustrated by parents' willingness to believe the reports. They urged the public not to panic and called on officials to issue a statement reassuring parents that the rumors were unfounded.
"There is one thing I am certain of," said Samia Abdul-Kadum, a high school English teacher. "There are certain groups that want Iraq to be backward. I advise the parents to send their kids to school because there is no serious threat."
By midnight, no attack had materialized.
Healthcare
Quote: ... The silver linings here are that the situation in parts of the country has improved in the last two months or so, and Iraqis have taken notice.
Hospitals are receiving large-scale outlays from the CPA. Also, many Iraqis report that the once-compulsory bribe to a doctor or hospital official is no longer necessary.
and from the same article, as usual, buried as the last paragraph, is a key observation:
Quote:"The Americans haven't solved that many problems for Iraqis," says Dr. Richard Garfield, who conducted on-site surveys of health care in Iraq this summer. "But they've created the environment for Iraqis to help themselves."
Public Health Spending
Current: $422 million spent in 2003
Prewar: $16 million spent in 2002
(Source:
CPA)
Education
Quote:Back to School
Iraq's Education System Enters a New Era
NNorthern Iraq: Better
Central Iraq: Better
Southern Iraq: Better
Few schools were damaged in the fighting, and prewar disrepair is being addressed. Schools appear to be in better condition than they were before the war.
According to Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) officials, $63 million has been spent to improve Iraq's schools. Students are receiving supplies they did not have before, and attendance within the first month of classes appears to match prewar levels.
Electricity
Quote:Northern Iraq: Better
Central Iraq: Worse
Southern Iraq: Better
Our surveys on electricity matched what the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is reporting: improvements in most of the country, except central Iraq. More areas of the country have electricity, and overall production has exceeded prewar levels.
Water Supply
Quote:Northern Iraq: Same
Central Iraq: Same or Worse
Southern Iraq: Same or Worse
Before the war, poor water quality was the leading cause of disease among children and hospitalization in Iraq, and this remains true today.
Starting from primitive and neglected prewar facillities, the Iraqi water system suffered damage, largely unrepaired, in the '91 war, and suffered additional, though lesser, damage during Iraqi Freedom, exacerbated by looting and further negatively impacted by electrical difficulties. While "Same" and "Same or Worse" are not "Better", they are not "Worse", and restoration of Iraq's water supply is a key component of the CPA's reconstruction efforts.
Paramount in all of the Contemporary Iraqi Condition is the issue of security. The ongoing, and accellerating, expansion of native Iraqi security forces is to be expected to have beneficial result.
The ills of over 30 years of tyranical, brutal, despotic abuse of a people cannot be undone in a few months. And no one can simply hand a ravaged and long-oppressed nation an instant utopia. What the US and Coalition Partners can do, and are doing, is provide the people of that nation with the opportunity and means to permit their own rebuilding of their own society. We cannot do it for them. We can and will see to it the conditions exist to permit them to do it.
In conclusion, I quote the final sentence (again, a heartening observation buried at the bottom of a not-exactly-glowing editorial opinion piece disguised as "News") of the cover article:
Quote:While many Iraqis surveyed complained about a deterioration in nearly every criteria on our list, many of those same people said they were hopeful, even optimistic, for the future.
It's their future to build. At least now, the have a future.
