Reply #38: Did some research for you (lotsa links) [View All]

This is what I could come up with, spending an hour or so searching online.
This little e-mail is nothing but a pile of shit, and you should let your sister have a look at this.
Maybe even have her send it to your moran brother?
Anyway, hope you get some use out of the links here. :)



Subject: Fw: Did you know?

>>>>Dear Friends, This won't make you feel good necessarily, but I feel
>>>>that we all do have a right to know.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>I didn't know! How could we?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>Did you know that 47 countries' have reestablished their embassies in
>>>>Iraq?

Sorry, but since 87.332% of all statistics are made up, this won't fly until you are able to list each of those 47 countries with links proving those embassies are still open today. Shall I fix a sandwich while I wait?

>>>>Did you know that the Iraqi government currently employs 1.2 million
>>>>Iraqi people?

Did you know that the country isn't even sure what its own unemployment rate is? And the best current estimates put it at about 20%. Good for those 1.2 million civil servants. They must be the lucky ones.

SOURCE - http://voanews.com/english/archive/2007-02/IraqUnemployment2007-02-18-voa21.cfm

>>>>Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are
>>>>under rehabilitation, 263 new schools are now under construction and 38
>>>>new schools have been completed in Iraq?

As quoted from dKosopedia.com with supporting links at http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Iraqi_schools#The_Real_status_of_Iraq.27s_School_System

School attendance far below pre war levels

As UNICEF says: Because of security issues, school attendance rates today vary between areas and schools. Last July, attendance was estimated at 60 per cent on average, which is far below pre-war levels ... For more about security issues see http://hrw.org/reports/2003/iraq0703/iraq0703.pdf Climate of Fear Sexual Violence and Abduction of Women and Girls in Baghdad (pdf) by Human Rights Watch

Rebuilt and destroyed again

A Washington Post article on February 20, 2005 U.S. Feeling Pressure To Rebuild Fallujah tells us that A few days before U.S. ground forces invaded her city in early November, Raja Hamdi Hussein locked the gate of Taburak primary school, where she is director of girls, and fled to Baghdad to wait out the assault.. When she returned this month, she looked around the school and cried... Schoolbooks were strewn about, the doors were broken down and student records were torn and scattered... The walls and ceilings are pocked with bullet holes, and most of the glass was knocked out during the fighting. The classrooms are cold... and the children shiver in their coats.

SOURCE - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38446-2005Feb19.html

Reconstruction or paint job ?

According to this October 2004 UNICEF report < A quarter of all schools in Iraq need major repairs>: The first comprehensive study on the condition of schools in post-conflict Iraq has confirmed that thousands of school facilities (in Iraq)lack the basics necessary to provide children with a decent education. The school survey, released this week by the Iraq Ministry of Education, shows that one-third of all primary schools in Iraq lack any water supply and almost half are without any sanitation facilities.

>>>>Did you know that Iraq's higher educational structure consists of 20
>>>>Universities, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers, all
>>>>currently operating?

That really means a lot when nobody shows up, as this statistic from Iraq's own Education Ministry shows:

January 29, 2007 · Iraq was once proud of its doctors, engineers and professors. Many hoped that with Saddam's fall and the end of economic sanctions, there would be a resurgence of professional skills.

But the Ministry of Education says only 30 percent of Iraq's students are currently attending classes — the lowest level since U.S. troops invaded Iraq four years ago. The universities, which are directly linked to Iraq's future, are on the verge of collapse.

SOURCE - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7070116

>>>>Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in
>>>>January 2005 for the re-established Fulbright program?

This naturally doesn't come from an American military website, but it seems believable enough to me. I report, you decide....

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/media/pdf/vox/Fulbright.pdf

>>>>Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational? They have (5) 100-foot
>>>>patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels and a naval infantry regiment. D

After about 5 straight pages of fair and balanced (?) news stories and articles playing up this wonderful branch of the Iraq military, dKosopedia.com again rears its ugly head in my Yahoo search with a link-rich rebuttal of your "statistics". For your reading pleasure:

http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Iraqi_Military

>>>>Did you know that Iraq's Air Force consists of three operational
>>>>squadrons, which includes 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport
>>>>aircraft (under Iraqi operational control) which operate day and night,
>>>>and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 Bell Jet Rangers?

See above.

>>>>Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando
>>>>Battalion?

See above.

>>>>Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained
>>>> and equipped police officers?

These dKosopidia people are either really on top of their game, or they're awful good at passing off lies backed by credible-looking links as factual information. I simply typed "Iraqi Police" into their search box and came up with another link-heavy article that seems to shoot the air out of this set of arguments as well. See for yourself:

http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Iraqi_Police

>>>>Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3500 new officers each 8 weeks?

See above.

>>>>Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in
>>>>Iraq? They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83
>>>>railroad stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69
>>>>electrical facilities.

A Yahoo search for doctors + fleeing + Iraq gives tons of hits for the same news story, which was reported on websites from Fox News to Michael Moore's site. But here is the same article as published by an American military site:

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,119420,00.html?ESRC=iraq.RSS

As for the status of Iraq's electricity capacity, here's a nice article with a pretty graph:

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/18/iraq-electricity/

Concerning Iraq's skyrocketing infant mortality rates (which aren't yet among the 10 highest in the world but maybe in another year or two...) I submit this article. You may dismiss it as "liberal hysteria" if you wish, but it sure sounds credible to me:

http://cleveland.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/25716.php

>>>>Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received
>>>>the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?

>>>>Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary
>>>>school by mid October?

Already rendered irrelevant by above links.

>>>>Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and
>>>>phone use has gone up 158%?

I fail to see how this equates to better quality of life in a country that barely has electricity or running water much of the time.

>>>>Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consists of 75
>>>>radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?

I'll buy THAT for a dollar!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/02/AR2005120201454.html

And a simple web search, like "Iraq + media + censorship" proves that simply having media doesn't mean that the information provided is worth the paper it's printed on or the energy to fire up the transmission tower.

>>>>Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004?

I'm glad to see that Iraqis with extra money to burn - who opt not to use it to leave the country - have a place to invest in stocks. It's awfully hard for me to tell what the rates of return on this stock market are, though, because most of the links were either mostly in Arabic or are now inactive. This tidbit means little to the millions of families who are living hand-to-mouth in that country.

>>>>Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a
>>>>televised debate recently?

I seem to remember the US having televised debates in 2000 and 2004. I also seem to remember that we have electronic voting machines which are controlled by a blatantly right-wing company called Diebold. Wonder what that could mean?

>>>>OF COURSE WE DIDN'T KNOW!
>>>> WHY DIDN'T WE KNOW?
>>>>OUR MEDIA WOULDN'T TELL US!

Kidnapped blondes. Runaway brides. Brittney Spears. American Idol. Wait, what?

>>>>Instead of reflecting our love for our country, we get photos of flag
>>>>burning incidents at Abu Ghraib and people throwing snowballs at the
>>>>presidential motorcades.

Never mind those photos of TORTURED PRISONERS at Abu Ghraib. Or the reports of abuse and torture of minors in places like Guantanamo Bay... right?

>>>>Tragically, the lack of accentuating the positive in Iraq serves two
>>>>purposes:
>>>>It is intended to undermine the world's perception of the United States
>>>>thus minimizing consequent support, and it is intended to discourage
>>>>American citizens.

Since everything in this piece has been thoroughly disproven or debunked, exactly what do we have left to feel positive about?

>>>>Above facts are verifiable on the Department of Defense web site.
>>>>http://www.defenselink.mil / .Pass it on!

O RLY?