Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
ABC
March 15, 2009
World News With Charles Gibson (ABC), 6:30 PM
DAN HARRIS: It was six years ago this week that the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq and all this week, ABC News will be taking a look at what life is like in Iraq right now in our series “Iraq: Where Things Stand.”
ABC’s Terry McCarthy has been traveling all over the country and this time he found something new – optimism.
TERRY MCCARTHY: Markets without bombs, Hummers without guns, ice cream after dark, busy streets without fear. Six years after the war started, more Iraqis now say the economy, rather than security, is the biggest concern in their lives – 32 percent against 20 percent. Sixty percent expect things to get better next year – almost three times as many as a year and a half ago. Iraqis are slowly discovering they have a future.
We flew south to Basra, where 94 percent said their lives are going well. Oil is plentiful here, so is money which they like to spend on expensive imports.
You have many people buying cell phones for $600?
MAN [Basra Shop Owner]: Yes.
MCCARTHY: At the port, shipping’s increased threefold since last year. But we didn’t realize quite how quickly Iraq was returning to normal until we visited the new modern Al Musawi Hospital.
How much did you pay for that machine?
MAN [Al Musawi Hospital]: Eighty thousand U.S. dollars.
MCCARTHY: Eighty thousand?
What surprised us most was that 8 percent of their patients come from overseas.
But as Iraq rejoins the world, it is not immune to the global recession. Iraq’s economy is almost entirely dependent on oil. So with oil prices down this year, they have less money to spend on everything else.
The private sector may be booming, but state-owned factories like this petrochemical plant cannot get the spare parts they need. It was idle the day we visited.
HUSSEIN AL SHAMMARI [Director General, Basra Petrochemical Plant]: Very important for Iraq’s ecology. That’s just in the technology side.
MCCARTHY: Much of the country is still stuck in the past. But now violence has gone down. Iraqis have a chance to start building a future that until recently they couldn’t even imagine.
Terry McCarthy, ABC News, Basra.
HARRIS: And there will be more of Terry’s reporting on where things stand in Iraq all week here on ABC News.
March 15, 2009
World News With Charles Gibson (ABC), 6:30 PM
DAN HARRIS: It was six years ago this week that the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq and all this week, ABC News will be taking a look at what life is like in Iraq right now in our series “Iraq: Where Things Stand.”
ABC’s Terry McCarthy has been traveling all over the country and this time he found something new – optimism.
TERRY MCCARTHY: Markets without bombs, Hummers without guns, ice cream after dark, busy streets without fear. Six years after the war started, more Iraqis now say the economy, rather than security, is the biggest concern in their lives – 32 percent against 20 percent. Sixty percent expect things to get better next year – almost three times as many as a year and a half ago. Iraqis are slowly discovering they have a future.
We flew south to Basra, where 94 percent said their lives are going well. Oil is plentiful here, so is money which they like to spend on expensive imports.
You have many people buying cell phones for $600?
MAN [Basra Shop Owner]: Yes.
MCCARTHY: At the port, shipping’s increased threefold since last year. But we didn’t realize quite how quickly Iraq was returning to normal until we visited the new modern Al Musawi Hospital.
How much did you pay for that machine?
MAN [Al Musawi Hospital]: Eighty thousand U.S. dollars.
MCCARTHY: Eighty thousand?
What surprised us most was that 8 percent of their patients come from overseas.
But as Iraq rejoins the world, it is not immune to the global recession. Iraq’s economy is almost entirely dependent on oil. So with oil prices down this year, they have less money to spend on everything else.
The private sector may be booming, but state-owned factories like this petrochemical plant cannot get the spare parts they need. It was idle the day we visited.
HUSSEIN AL SHAMMARI [Director General, Basra Petrochemical Plant]: Very important for Iraq’s ecology. That’s just in the technology side.
MCCARTHY: Much of the country is still stuck in the past. But now violence has gone down. Iraqis have a chance to start building a future that until recently they couldn’t even imagine.
Terry McCarthy, ABC News, Basra.
HARRIS: And there will be more of Terry’s reporting on where things stand in Iraq all week here on ABC News.