Subject: Rebuilding Iraq

From: "Joan F \(MI\)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 14:55:06 -0400

In Marian's absence I guess I'd  better take up the slack.  |

October 16, 2003 | Daily Mislead Archive
Six in Ten Iraqis Unemployed, but U. S. Subcontractors Hire Cheap Migrant
Laborers

Even though seven million Iraqis are unemployed1, U.S. sub-contractors are
rebuilding the Iraqi infrastructure with cheap migrant labor from South
Asia.2 The use of Asian laborers is at odds with President Bush's emphasis
on the importance of Iraqis taking on the job themselves.

Bush has said the key to "rebuilding a democratic and prosperous Iraq is the
Iraqi people themselves."3 Paul Bremer, the Bush appointee overseeing
post-war Iraq, likewise has talked of the need to turn around the country's
60 percent unemployment rate and "to fix a very sick economy."4

However, the head of the Iraqi Jobless Association, Kasem Hadi, is critical
of the Bush Administration's lack of progress. "Following four rounds of
talks with [Bremer's] representatives, we made no progress regarding the
unemployment crisis,"5 Hadi says.

Meanwhile, U.S. Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, one of Bremer's
colleagues, has raised questions about the reliability of foreign workers.
"You find [them] in out-of-the-way corners taking 15 minute naps," she
notes.6

At the same time, officials of the Iraqi Governing Council are concerned
that large American contractors, including Halliburton and Bechtel, may be
inflating the cost of the reconstruction projects. The Iraqi governors told
members of the U.S. Congress that Iraqi companies could be doing the work at
10 percent of the cost.7

Sources:
1. "Iraq: 7 Million Jobless Persons," Asia Africa Intelligence Wire,
InfoProd, 8/27/03.
2. "Contractors in Iraq Accused of Importing Labour and Exporting Profit,"
Financial Times/UK, 10/14/03.
3. Presidential Radio Address, 7/23/03.
4. Interview of Paul Bremer by Tom Brokaw, NBC Nightly News, 7/14/03.
5. "Iraq: 7 Million Jobless Persons," Asia Africa Intelligence Wire,
InfoProd, 8/27/03.
6. "Contractors in Iraq Accused of Importing Labour and Exporting Profit,"
Financial Times/UK, 10/14/03.
7. Letter to OMB Director Joshua Bolten from Rep. Henry Waxman, 9/30/03.

---

From: Jan <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 16:47:31 -0400

>7. Letter to OMB Director Joshua Bolten from Rep. Henry Waxman, 9/30/03.
Joan,
This is confession time.  When I first read your introduction below,
"In Marian's absence I guess I'd  better take up the slack. "
my first reaction was "Oh God no, please spare us".<g>
However, on reading the article I was pleased to see that it was not a
self-opiniated  Bush government rant by some media hack, but rather a
well written piece of information complete with sources.  Thank you
for this, but please stay away from the op-ed crap.
What can one add to the article, it is concise and displays the
apparent contempt these companies have for not only the Iraqis but
also for their President and the policies he wants to follow.  Perhaps
it's time for someone high up in government to start reaming out a few
civilian contractors to change things around.  Yet another way of not
winning friends.

Jan
"If you can't take a joke you shouldn't have joined"

---

From: Eugene A. Calame <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 16:06:26 -0500

>In Marian's absence I guess I'd  better take up the slack.  |

Only if you want to continue the bickering as declared in the threads, "Fed-up
with Iraq war bickering" and "Enough dialogue". 

-- 
Eugene A. Calame    [email-masked]
Austin, Texas USA   

Please ask your ISP to add the newsgroup alt.misc.friends

---

From: Eugene A. Calame <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 16:27:02 -0500

>7. Letter to OMB Director Joshua Bolten from Rep. Henry Waxman, 9/30/03.
-----------------------
#3 quote complete.

Our greatest ally in the vital work of stabilizing and rebuilding a democratic
and prosperous Iraq is the Iraqi people, themselves. Our goal is to turn over
authority to Iraqis as quickly as possible. Coalition authorities are training
Iraqi police forces to help patrol Iraqi cities and villages. Ambassador Bremer
and General Abizaid are working to establish as quickly as possible a new Iraqi
civilian defense force to help protect supply convoys and power plants and
ammunition depots. Offices have been established in major Iraqi cities to
recruit soldiers for a new Iraqi army that will defend the people of Iraq,
instead of terrorizing them.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030723-1.html
------------------------------

I don't think the president was talking about dirt work with these words. 

In addition it was an address from the Rose Garden and not a radio address.

---

From: "Joan F \(MI\)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 18:17:47 -0400

Dirt work?  Not sure what you mean by that phrase.  Do you mean work that is
too low paid and tedious for most people to want to do it?  From what I have
read there are lots of Iraqis who would be happy to have any paying job.

"Eugene A. Calame" <[email-masked]> wrote in message
news:[email-masked]...
#3 quote complete.

Our greatest ally in the vital work of stabilizing and rebuilding a
democratic
and prosperous Iraq is the Iraqi people, themselves. Our goal is to turn
over
authority to Iraqis as quickly as possible. Coalition authorities are
training
Iraqi police forces to help patrol Iraqi cities and villages. Ambassador
Bremer
and General Abizaid are working to establish as quickly as possible a new
Iraqi
civilian defense force to help protect supply convoys and power plants and
ammunition depots. Offices have been established in major Iraqi cities to
recruit soldiers for a new Iraqi army that will defend the people of Iraq,
instead of terrorizing them.

---

From: Eugene A. Calame <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2003 17:39:16 -0500

On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 18:17:47 -0400, "Joan F \(MI\)" <[email-masked]> wrote:

>read there are lots of Iraqis who would be happy to have any paying job

Yes "dirt work" is hard, backbreaking, tedious, low paid work that many people
will not do.  

However, It is often skilled, dangerous, well paid work that takes special
training to do and many will not do that type either.

As far as, "there are lots of Iraqis who would be happy to have any paying job",
I hear the same story about unemployed workers in the USA.