Spence
02-10-2006, 10:48 PM
Almost three years and $16 billion since the invasion of Iraq and we still can't keep the lights on longer than Saddam Hussein could. Seriously, in a world that made any kind of sense, this would cause dozens of officials to hang their heads and resign their jobs in shame. Virtually every measure of the performance of Iraq's oil, electricity, water and sewerage sectors has fallen below preinvasion values even though $16 billion of American taxpayer money has already been disbursed in the Iraq reconstruction program, several government witnesses said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday.
Of seven measures of public services performance presented at the committee hearing by the inspector general's office, only one was above preinvasion values.
Those that had slumped below those values were electrical generation capacity, hours of power available in a day in Baghdad, oil and heating oil production and the numbers of Iraqis with drinkable water and sewage service.Source (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/09/international/middleeast/09hearing.html?_r=5&oref=login&pagewanted=print)
Of seven measures of public services performance presented at the committee hearing by the inspector general's office, only one was above preinvasion values.
Those that had slumped below those values were electrical generation capacity, hours of power available in a day in Baghdad, oil and heating oil production and the numbers of Iraqis with drinkable water and sewage service.Source (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/09/international/middleeast/09hearing.html?_r=5&oref=login&pagewanted=print)