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

[clestes-2009]

GretaGreen

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.

[sandy19731]

Bob, you and your colleagues keep up the good work. The press was telling the truth in the 60's, just as you are telling the truth now. I just wish you had questioned and probed more in 2003 and before.
Posted by photogeezer at 12:32 PM : Jul 29, 2007

Ditto

[knyghtwolf]

Imagine yourself in the bushwacker's place, or imagine being in D I C K(less) Cheney's place when you are FINALLY gonna be taken out of the Whitehouse kicking & screaming because you are NOT dictator-for-life but more of a supreme cheese weenie destined to go down in history as the most dispicable, deplorable, dishonest, cowardly, buttz of every joke ever made or ever will be made in political history, hated, dispised, shoddy piece of human history, stupid, ignorant, lowlife, scum, carpet licking, dung muncher, vile vomit choking disease that ever LIVED in OUR history, not to mention WORLD history. Not me, because I guess I am too chicken to put my life in a grinder and care less what comes out. Remember Plan Nine from Outer Space, that is an epic movie compared to the bush administration.

[bennyblack1]

I still think we need to get out while we still have the ability to. You can't think of it as running. It's called responsibility. It's like, if I give all my money to someone who goes and blows it on the wrong things, and I can't pay my bills, then that person's disposition hasn't changed. But, because I gave that money away, and didn't pay my bills, I might be living in the street myself. That's not responsibility for myself. That's plain stupidity. If you and a buddy are hurt, and you both have a first aid bag, well, you don't use your bag to tend to his wounds. You use HIS. And if you are able, you use your own to attend to your own wounds. Once you have taken care of yourself, then you are able to help others. It's time we took care of ourselves.

[bennyblack1]

I would seem to me that another training issue has arisen. Or is it another example of Iraqi insurgency in the form of workers that vandalze and recklessly destroy equipment? I'm sure that they were properly trained, and were told how to operate the equipment, what and what not fuel to use, maintenance, and so on. The Iraqis have no idea the importance of maintaining their own stuff. They are like children given new toys. They play with the toys, then nonchalantly throw them away. When you tell them, "Don't..." they do, just to see what happens. They'll do the right thing as long they are being watched, but once you turn your back, they do exactly opposite of what they were instructed to do. Here's a resolution: have the Iraqi government pay Americans to run their power plants. It'll be expensive. I'm sure after a while, they'll want to ensure that their own are trained and qualified to run the equipment, and will put into place policies for dealing with people that destroy it. I don't know of any country that wants to live without power. For that reason alone, unity ought to be paramount.

[rushlimpdrug]

"European Skylines Reflect Rise Of Islam"
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.

[stl-mo-usa]

Mr. Schieffer,


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!!!!

[jmurrieta1]

"European Skylines Reflect Rise Of Islam"

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.

[skeezix06]

I think no one with any brains would consider sending peacekeepers at this point. Bush may not understand its a total disaster but you can bet everyone else on the planet does. Other than that, splitting Iraq into 3 parts and getting out before we lose any more people or money in what is clearly a civil war, with or without us, sounds fine to me.

[gretagreen]

We all know Iraq is a tragic terrible mess. I want us to talk about solutions. I have three suggestions and I want someone to tell my why they aren't any good.
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?