Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: The Associated Press
Byline: HAMZA HENDAWI
Date: 24 October 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq_U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad insisted Tuesday that that
things are not all bad in Iraq, citing the growing number of satellite
dishes on rooftops and consumers with cell phones as signs of economic
progress.
"Economically, I see an Iraq every day that I do not think the American
people know about _ where cell phones and satellite dishes, once forbidden,
are now common, where economic reform takes place on a regular basis, where
agricultural production is rising dramatically, and where the overall
economy and the consumer sector is growing," the American envoy told a
Baghdad news conference.
Some Iraqis saw things differently.
"We'd prefer he take those back and return just 10 percent of our prewar
life," said Mohammed Ibrahim, a 50-year-old government employee from
Baghdad. "Saying things like that shows the Americans' contempt for us
Iraqis."
Analogies between conditions in Iraq now and life before the 2003 U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq are common among Iraqis, angered over what they see as the
failure of successive Iraqi governments and their American backers to
provide security, services or jobs.
Khalilzad spoke at one of he lowest points in America's involvement in Iraq.
An average of more than 40 Iraqis are being killed every day in October,
according to an Associated Press count based on AP reporting and considered
a minimum. The violence has forced nearly 1 million Iraqis to flee abroad
since 2003 and as many as 300,000 more have become refugees in their own
country because of sectarian killings.
Mobile phones were introduced in Iraq in 2004 and proved to be an instant
hit, with about 1 million subscribers in the Baghdad area alone now.
Similarly, satellite dishes, prohibited under Saddam, also proved popular,
and there is hardly a rooftop in Baghdad or elsewhere in Iraq now without at
least one.
The advent of the two came as part of the free market economy that
spontaneously sprang up in Iraq in the chaos and freewheeling period after
Saddam's ouster, filling markets with anything from South American bananas,
to Korean electrical goods, Finnish telephones and Iranian biscuits.
But after nearly 13 years of U.N. sanctions that reduced millions of Iraqis
to destitution, not everyone was able to enjoy the fruits of the free
market. Government employees, about 1 million nationwide, have been the
biggest spenders since 2003, thanks to pay raises as high as 100 percent.
Amrah al-Badawi, a Shiite lawmaker and a member of parliament's economic
committee, chuckled when told of Khalilzad's comments.
"Iraqis longed for mobile phones and satellite television, but their
availability now are of little relevance to the economy," she said. "What we
need is economic ventures, and these are not going to happen with security
the way it is."
Without substantial economic activity, Iraqis continue to suffer 30 percent
unemployment and double-digit inflation.
The price of gasoline, which is often scarce, has increased 12 fold since
2003. Bread by nearly five fold. Fresh meat by more than 100 percent.
Tenuous security means that less farm produce reaches retail markets,
causing prices to rise.
Most Iraqis continue to depend on their Saddam-era food ration cards for
affordable items, but many holders say key items like sugar and rice are
sometimes unavailable for as long as three months.
The wide access to satellite dishes and mobile phones that Khalilzad spoke
of also hold some unpleasant ironies.
Mobile phones have been widely used to set off many of the bombs that kill
and maim across much of the country, with U.S. and Iraqi forces their
primary victims. Satellite dishes also enabled Iraqis to watch programs
perceived to have anti-U.S. content. The Qatar-based al-Jazeera television
and Hezbollah's al-Manar-TV for example.
Baghdad residents say they are spoiled by the large number of channels
available on satellite TV, something that keeps them entertained when many
of them huddle at home, afraid to go out for fear of falling victim to the
violence.
But killing time in front of television needs electricity and that's one of
Iraq's big postwar problems.
Power outages in Baghdad are a daily occurrence, and they can last up to
three days in some areas.
Khalilzad, however, rejected the analogy some Iraqis use on life before and
after Saddam.
"The important fact to keep in mind is that, of course, a lot of innocent
Iraqis are getting killed (now), and that's a source of concern to us and to
the Iraqis," he said. "But during Saddam, thousands upon thousands of Iraqis
were killed as a result of a government policy."
"We ended up with a worse-than-before dictatorship," concluded Alaa Makki of
the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni group. "We now have
slaughter, kidnapping and disenfranchisement."
Byline: HAMZA HENDAWI
Date: 24 October 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq_U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad insisted Tuesday that that
things are not all bad in Iraq, citing the growing number of satellite
dishes on rooftops and consumers with cell phones as signs of economic
progress.
"Economically, I see an Iraq every day that I do not think the American
people know about _ where cell phones and satellite dishes, once forbidden,
are now common, where economic reform takes place on a regular basis, where
agricultural production is rising dramatically, and where the overall
economy and the consumer sector is growing," the American envoy told a
Baghdad news conference.
Some Iraqis saw things differently.
"We'd prefer he take those back and return just 10 percent of our prewar
life," said Mohammed Ibrahim, a 50-year-old government employee from
Baghdad. "Saying things like that shows the Americans' contempt for us
Iraqis."
Analogies between conditions in Iraq now and life before the 2003 U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq are common among Iraqis, angered over what they see as the
failure of successive Iraqi governments and their American backers to
provide security, services or jobs.
Khalilzad spoke at one of he lowest points in America's involvement in Iraq.
An average of more than 40 Iraqis are being killed every day in October,
according to an Associated Press count based on AP reporting and considered
a minimum. The violence has forced nearly 1 million Iraqis to flee abroad
since 2003 and as many as 300,000 more have become refugees in their own
country because of sectarian killings.
Mobile phones were introduced in Iraq in 2004 and proved to be an instant
hit, with about 1 million subscribers in the Baghdad area alone now.
Similarly, satellite dishes, prohibited under Saddam, also proved popular,
and there is hardly a rooftop in Baghdad or elsewhere in Iraq now without at
least one.
The advent of the two came as part of the free market economy that
spontaneously sprang up in Iraq in the chaos and freewheeling period after
Saddam's ouster, filling markets with anything from South American bananas,
to Korean electrical goods, Finnish telephones and Iranian biscuits.
But after nearly 13 years of U.N. sanctions that reduced millions of Iraqis
to destitution, not everyone was able to enjoy the fruits of the free
market. Government employees, about 1 million nationwide, have been the
biggest spenders since 2003, thanks to pay raises as high as 100 percent.
Amrah al-Badawi, a Shiite lawmaker and a member of parliament's economic
committee, chuckled when told of Khalilzad's comments.
"Iraqis longed for mobile phones and satellite television, but their
availability now are of little relevance to the economy," she said. "What we
need is economic ventures, and these are not going to happen with security
the way it is."
Without substantial economic activity, Iraqis continue to suffer 30 percent
unemployment and double-digit inflation.
The price of gasoline, which is often scarce, has increased 12 fold since
2003. Bread by nearly five fold. Fresh meat by more than 100 percent.
Tenuous security means that less farm produce reaches retail markets,
causing prices to rise.
Most Iraqis continue to depend on their Saddam-era food ration cards for
affordable items, but many holders say key items like sugar and rice are
sometimes unavailable for as long as three months.
The wide access to satellite dishes and mobile phones that Khalilzad spoke
of also hold some unpleasant ironies.
Mobile phones have been widely used to set off many of the bombs that kill
and maim across much of the country, with U.S. and Iraqi forces their
primary victims. Satellite dishes also enabled Iraqis to watch programs
perceived to have anti-U.S. content. The Qatar-based al-Jazeera television
and Hezbollah's al-Manar-TV for example.
Baghdad residents say they are spoiled by the large number of channels
available on satellite TV, something that keeps them entertained when many
of them huddle at home, afraid to go out for fear of falling victim to the
violence.
But killing time in front of television needs electricity and that's one of
Iraq's big postwar problems.
Power outages in Baghdad are a daily occurrence, and they can last up to
three days in some areas.
Khalilzad, however, rejected the analogy some Iraqis use on life before and
after Saddam.
"The important fact to keep in mind is that, of course, a lot of innocent
Iraqis are getting killed (now), and that's a source of concern to us and to
the Iraqis," he said. "But during Saddam, thousands upon thousands of Iraqis
were killed as a result of a government policy."
"We ended up with a worse-than-before dictatorship," concluded Alaa Makki of
the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni group. "We now have
slaughter, kidnapping and disenfranchisement."