[Vision2020] I'll Never Ged Used to Iraq (Bob Schieffer)

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (July 29, 2007) closing commentary of "Face the Nation" with
Bob Schieffer -

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I'll Never Get Used to Iraq
By Bob Schieffer

People try to compare the war in Iraq to Vietnam. Here's one way they are
not alike. As America bogged down in Vietnam, we saw so much violence on our
TV screens that after a while, the pictures lost their shock value. We
became used to them. 

Well, whatever else you can say about Iraq, it has yet to lose its ability
to shock. 

And it's not just the rising death toll. When it comes to outrageous
conduct, the Iraqi government can always seem to find a way to top itself. 

The latest shocker comes from the Bush administration's own Inspector
General for Iraq Reconstruction. Remember all those rebuilding projects in
Iraq that are cited as signs of progress? Well, there is more to it, it
turns out, than we knew. 

Yes, Americans are doing a lot of building - nearly $6 billion worth of
power plants and hospitals. The problem is we can't get the Iraqi government
to take them off our hands. Of 2,797 projects, the Iraqis have been willing
to take over fewer than 500. That means the rest have fallen into the hands
of people who many times have no idea how to operate them. 

The latest example: A recently completed power plant shut down after
unqualified workers put the wrong fuel in $90 million turbines and ruined
them. 

The Iraqi Parliament is heading off to a month-long vacation next week. If
you are wondering how much all this will cost us while they are away, key
members of Congress are being told $200,000 a minute. 

I'm not sure I'll ever get used to that.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)