I'll Never Get Used To Iraq
Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host 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.
E-mail Face the Nation.
By Bob Schieffer
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. 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.
By Bob Schieffer
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All of your suggestions have merit, but also have problems.
#1, bring in what peace keepers?? You will have to be more explicit. The UN, other middle east countries. Depending on whom the peace keepers were, they could make Iraq better or worse.
#2 This has been long overdue. Without a thorough understanding of each faction's position and what they want, we cannot help them make political progress.
The assumption that the best solution would be to allow Iraq to dissolve into 3 separate factions may not be the best. Without an oil revenue sharing law, dissolving Iraq won't work.
Posted by photogeezer at 12:32 PM : Jul 29, 2007
Ditto
Curious how CBS closed comments on this as soon as it was posted.
This is what will happen in the USA unless Muslim immigration is controlled. . .. .
Posted by jmurrieta1
Doesn't surprise me, they do this constantly.
I never saw the story, sounds interesting.
The American people are going to "Shock" the establishment in Washington that has settled for this disgrace in Iraq ( along with all other nonsense that's been going). We have had enough & will "clean house".
Yes, folks "HOPE" is on the way & it'll be comming to OUR White House soon!!!!
Curious how CBS closed comments on this as soon as it was posted.
This is what will happen in the USA unless Muslim immigration is controlled. It's not the Mexicans that we need to worry about--it's the Muslims, immigrating with a plan to force their religion on us all. That is the teaching of their book. And that is why Iraq is a place one could never get used to.
1. We bring in peacekeepers to try to gain some kind of order while our military starts to withdraw.
2. We engage, with every bit of energy and intelligence we have, in discussions with the Iraqi factions to understand what we can do to achieve peace. Assumably, we negotiate a split of power and resources among the factions; and
3. We help them split Iraq into three parts.
What do you think?