Illuminating Iraq

Fire of Liberty

Though the news with regards to Iraq have not been on the positive side of the ledger as of late, what with the bombings, killings, and attacks on the various mosques throughout Iraq(At least the MSM's ever present claim of a civil war breaking out within Iraq has been abated)there are also some positive aspects of our current efforts in Iraq that need to be pointed out. According to New York Post columnist Ralph Peters the one area(registration required) that seems to be talked more about is the efforts on the side of the US and folks in Iraq to ensuring an adequate supply of electricity is provided to the countryside. Peters notes while critics of our efforts point out that Iraq has about the same or less power output as pre-war Iraq provided the fail to point out that more regions are seeing more constant hours of current than during the time when Saddam picked and chose who got power. In fact you've got to hand it to the engineers, electricians, technicians and soldiers who have been working tirelessly to keep such amounts of power going within a country that had a poorly kept electrical infrastructure (during years of Saddam's neglect) and had a massive spending spree on major electrical appliances by the Iraqi people after the borders were opened up for trade after Saddam's fall. Now its easy for folks to say that Iraq isn't progressing that well due to this low output of electricity some three years after Saddam's removal (and other things) but when I read what Peters has to say about the whole situation I feel we can check this off as a success in progress. See for yourself:

Col. John Medeiros, an Air Force civil engineer, is convinced that "Iraqis want to succeed," and that "the job's getting done." He's impressed by the local thirst for knowledge after the information drought under Saddam. As for developing competent Iraqi managers, he calls it "escaping 'Insh'Allah' " — that is, the habit of shrugging off personal responsibility for getting a tough job done.

Medeiros points out another overlooked factor about our efforts: Many of our projects have been long-term; some major installations are only now coming on line (despite the challenges, 130 projects have been completed).

The challenge isn't just power generation, either. Everything was decrepit, from sub-stations to the power lines themselves. We faced a daunting task. And our fellow Americans in Iraq have done a far better job than they've received credit for doing.

We aren't just fixing it all while the Iraqis watch, either. We couldn't. The cost would be prohibitive, and rebuilding the entire power system was never our intention. Our goal was to jump-start the system, then teach Iraqis how to do it — and more and more projects are now carried out by Iraqi firms and ministries, with U.S. officials offering only supervision and advice.

Iraqis won't be fully content for years, of course. They desperately want to be part of the modern world — and that's going to take a long time. Meanwhile, they're finding workarounds. Many Baghdad neighborhoods have chipped in to buy communal generators to provide reliable power to their homes. Not the perfect system, but it buys time for development.

Significant problems remain, no question about it. Iraq was a ruined country. But things are going far better than you've been told.

At least Ralph Peters is being a more honest broker with regard to Iraq than other "luminaries" of the MSM have done when it comes to Iraq.