[extropy-chat] POLITICS: terrorism and strategies

[J. Andrew Rogers]

> I would disagree that things are up to pre-war levels (based on readings
> in the popular press) but things are closer than they were a year ago.
> So things are better than they were but still need to bbe improved.


The press has been aggressively ignoring what has been going on with
regard to infrastructure.  It was at or exceeding pre-war levels by the
beginning of 2004.

Highlights from the latest infrastructure status report (dated 15Jun04)
at export.gov, published by the US DoD:

- Phone subscribers 45% above pre-war levels.
- Internet access is >10 times higher than pre-war.
- Electricity availability greatly exceeds pre-war levels in most of the
country, both in quantity and quality.
- Substantial increase in access to potable water due to overhauls of
existing infrastructure and new construction.
- Medical has improved dramatically, immunizations now at 85% of
children, infant mortality falling sharply, and spending on clinics and
hospitals is integer factors higher than pre-war levels and more widely
available.
- Massive expansion and overhaul of school system, 32,000 teachers
trained, 2500 schools rehabilitated to date.
- Transport is rapidly improving and increasing throughput for sea, air,
and land.  Transport was in a deteriorated state pre-war.
- Improving transport is improving food supplies.
- Unemployment rate is below pre-war levels
- Economy is rapidly improving by a number of metrics


Immediately after the war, the country was in worse shape than pre-war
by most metrics, but that state did not last very long.  The US was very
aggressive about overhauling the infrastructure, and by any reasonable
metric, it is in far better shape than it was pre-war.  Parity with
previous infrastructure appears to have been reached sometime very early
in 2004.

Much of the Iraqi infrastructure was in a dilapidated state pre-war,
especially outside of Baghdad, and the US overhaul is the first serious
maintenance many of these systems have seen in a decade or more.

You'll note that the press doesn't talk about the Iraqi infrastructure
any more.  They lamented how bad it was immediately after the war, and
then never mentioned the massive improvements in it as the months passed.


j. andrew rogers