Evil USA Built 1,000s of Hospitals, Schools, Etc.

[shazeep]

the simple, unvarnished truth is that anywhere we intrude now is left in a shambles; that appears to even be the goal. I cannot find one contrary example. It's as if the Admin was pointedly doing their best to make America universally hated.

[Jermyn Davidson]

Originally Posted by shazeep

the simple, unvarnished truth is that anywhere we intrude now is left in a shambles; that appears to even be the goal. I cannot find one contrary example. It's as if the Admin was pointedly doing their best to make America universally hated.

Afghanistan is not in shambles and Iraq is in shambles today because of their own people. It's not America's fault that people are unable to govern themselves.

We didn't bomb them and leave them.

[Walks_in_islam]

Originally Posted by Jermyn Davidson

Afghanistan is not in shambles and Iraq is in shambles today because of their own people. It's not America's fault that people are unable to govern themselves.

We didn't bomb them and leave them.

Yeah JD. We did. I used to believe what you believe, but what I know now is that a lot of American companies took a lot of money to build things and didnt even get the water on and lights running.

Guy who worked two years on the "reconstruction" teams wrote a book about it. Title was "we meant well" or something like that. Read the cliff notes then come back and lets all talk about how we left them.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/080509...656506-3822716

Here's the link to the book. We all should educate ourselves before we pound our chests.

[shazeep]

Originally Posted by Jermyn Davidson

Afghanistan is not in shambles and Iraq is in shambles today because of their own people. It's not America's fault that people are unable to govern themselves.

We didn't bomb them and leave them.

please. This approaches comedy, imo. It would have been much kinder had we bombed them and left them. No--we topple their regimes, install our own to serve our ends, then remove them forcibly when they no longer serve our purposes, leaving a power vacuum and depleted uranium in our wake. America is literally radioactive to these people. Oh, and that aint all; we'll also insure that they remain destabilized by creating IS.

Dress it up however you like.

[Walks_in_islam]

Originally Posted by deacon blues

Isn't it amazing that the evil, oil stealing, wedding bombing, child killing Americans built thousands of hospitals, bridges, roads, water treatment plants, schools, and many other infrastructure projects to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars Iraq and Afghanistan.

We are such tyrants.

See the link to that book general? State dept. Highly decorated. Speaks 4 languages. Served in several countries. Stayed in Iraq until after we pulled out.
He says differently general. Says we didnt build stick. What says you? Parroting your spoon fed news again?

[Walks_in_islam]

1,000's of hospitals!

What a crock.

http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/20...system-in.html

The companies that the U.S. contracted to build medical facilities also ran into problems. In March 2004, the Pentagon gave a $243 million contract to Parsons to renovate 17 hospitals, fix three Health Ministry buildings, and build 150 new healthcare centers. Later, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) found that the firm was not meeting its goals. It said that high staff turnover, poor management, and weak quality control were the reasons. From May 2004 to the end of 2005 for instance, eight contract officers, six program managers, and five sector leads had come and gone. By September 2005, the U.S. told Parsons it had lost confidence in the company, and reduced its workload as a result. Eventually, its contract was cancelled. By then, it had only built 6 of the 150 clinics at a cost of $186 million, 76% of the original deal’s funds.

Guess what General. I worked for Parsons for awhile. Quite awhile actually. See I used to be on the OTHER side, your side. Moving on.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/...ontracts_N.htm

Nov 16, 2008 · The Pentagon spent about $600 million on more than 1,200 Iraq reconstruction contracts that were eventually canceled, nearly half of them for mismanagement ...

Dear General: Please pull your head out and listen because I'm only going to say this once. Just because the US companies who profited (hugely profited) from the war were PAID to build them and PLANNED to build them doesn't mean we actually BUILT anything. The title of this thread is about as accurate as your "Iranian New Year" thread.

How Republicans reform healthcare: (this is funny because they have SO MUCH to say about Obamacare)

This started with a political decision by the Bush White House. The USAID initially appointed Frederick Burkle Jr., a deputy assistant manager at the Agency, to advise the Health Ministry. He had a master’s degree in public health, was a teacher at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health with expertise in disaster relief, and had worked in Kosovo, Somalia, and Kurdistan after the Gulf War. He was sent to Baghdad immediately after the fall of the regime. Within weeks of arriving however, he was told that he was going to be replaced by a political appointee from the White House. The new Health Ministry adviser was James Haveman Jr. He was formerly the community health director for a Republican governor of Michigan, John Engler, and had some foreign experience working for International Aid, a Christian relief group. Engler recommended Haveman to Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who had him hired. Burkle was obviously far more qualified than Haveman. Not only that, but Burkle had worked in Iraq before in 1991 in Kurdistan, giving him some on the ground experience in the country. Since health was not a major priority, the Bush administration probably felt like it was okay to hand the task over to someone with political connections rather than a USAID official.

Haveman then went about causing a major conflict with the Iraqis. He wanted to completely change the country’s reliance upon hospitals, and build a series of small clinics that would concentrate upon preventive care. Haveman believed this would provide greater care to Iraqis. He also didn’t like the fact that healthcare was free in Iraq, and wanted people to pay for their services. Finally, Haveman pushed to privatize the importation and distribution of drugs in the country. This led to a series of bureaucratic battles with the Health Ministry. In the end, Haveman went ahead with his plans even though he never convinced the Iraqis of his point of view. This came at a bad time, because demand for emergency care was taking off in Iraq’s hospitals as violence started. People were regularly being brought in from bombings and shootings, while hospitals were not getting that much money, because Haveman wanted new clinics built instead.

Trying to reform how Iraq procured and handed out its medicine became a huge fiasco. Haveman was in charge of changing drug distribution when he worked in Michigan. He wanted to cut costs in the state, and decided to achieve that by limiting the number of drugs that doctors could prescribe to patients. He wanted to do the same in Iraq. There, roughly 4,500 medications were used, which Haveman wanted to slash. Furthermore, he wanted to stop Iraq from buying its medicines from Syria, Iran, and Russia, and have it purchase them from the United States instead. Haveman asked Washington for help with the task, and got a three-man team from the Pentagon. They were to draw up a new list of drugs to be used in Iraq in two weeks, and then go home. The head of the team quickly found out that this was a ridiculous task. He thought the existing list that the Iraqis used wasn’t bad, that what Haveman actually wanted was a complete institutional change in how healthcare was to be provided, something a three man team was not capable of accomplishing, and that Haveman didn’t know what he was doing. Some of Haveman’s staff shared these criticisms as well. These issues were never worked out. By the time Haveman left the country it was facing a severe drug shortage. The Health Ministry said that 40% of the medicines that were on its essentials list were out of stock in the country’s hospitals, because of Haveman’s attempts at reform.

[Fionn mac Cumh]

Originally Posted by deacon blues

Isn't it amazing that the evil, oil stealing, wedding bombing, child killing Americans built thousands of hospitals, bridges, roads, water treatment plants, schools, and many other infrastructure projects to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars Iraq and Afghanistan.

We are such tyrants.

And? Let me guess, they did it out of the goodness of their heart, and made nothing on the hundreds of billions of dollars? Look at who has gotten rich off the war on terror. Its the very ones making the decisions.

[Fionn mac Cumh]

Originally Posted by deacon blues

Watched 60 Minutes last night and heard Iraqis bemoaning our absence over there, about how much better life was with American military forces in their country. Grown men crying because of the atrocities taking place over there now that we are gone.

They hate us over there.

I am so glad that the war on terror turned into operation Iraqi feel good. What did all those people die for?

[Fionn mac Cumh]

The USA is nothing more than a modern day Roman Empire. Look at all of our bases all over the world. Look at our troops all over the world.

[Fionn mac Cumh]