With a tip of the hat to Real Clear Politics, Andrew Sullivan has a great summary of some of the accomplishments in Iraq. Here's a quick list of the main accomplishments directly from Andrew's site:
Six months ago there were no police on duty in Iraq.
· Today there are over 40,000 police on duty, nearly 7,000 here in Baghdad alone.
· Last night Coalition Forces and Iraqi police conducted 1,731 joint patrols.
· Today nearly all of Iraq’s 400 courts are functioning.
· Today, for the first time in over a generation, the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.
· On Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts—exceeding the pre-war average.
· Today all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.
· Many of you know that we announced our plan to rehabilitate one thousand schools by the time school started—well, by October 1 we had actually rehabbed over 1,500.
Six months ago teachers were paid as little as $5.33 per month.
· Today teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.
· Today we have increased public health spending to over 26 times what it was under Saddam.
· Today all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.
· Today doctors’ salaries are at least eight times what they were under Saddam.
· Pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700 tons in May to a current total of 12,000 tons.
· Since liberation we have administered over 22 million vaccination doses to Iraq’s many children.
This is all great news and instead of a haven for terrorists we may get to have the spreading of democracy in the Middle East. How much is that worth? IMO, way more than $87 billion.
Posted by Tim at October 10, 2003 09:54 AM
