Matth3w

Part I of the news the mainstream media isn't reporting

An often-heard complaint by supporters of the Bush administration, the war and the troops concerns the relative invisibility of good-news stories from Iraq.

There is some justice to this charge. The opening of an elementary school or yet another clinic can seem like small potatoes when six soldiers are ambushed or hundreds of Iraqis die in a stampede. Even so, the small successes and little victories are too often ignored or downplayed.

So here is a focus on the good news from Iraq, with statistics using the latest information available from the Defense Department and the Brookings Institution's Iraq Index and figures from Australian Arthur Chrenkoff, whose "Good News" column has appeared on the Web site of the Wall Street Journal:

• All 240 hospitals and more than 1,200 clinics in Iraq are open. The Najaf Teaching Hospital, looted and vandalized by the Sadr Militia just a year ago, is open, housing 80 patients and seeing hundreds more daily. Its 100 doctors are training 200 medical students and 50 pharmacy students. When work is complete, it will house new MRI and CT scanners and an open-heart surgery team.

• More than 90 percent of all Iraqi children now receive routine immunizations.

• More than 1,000 children in the Mosul area had medical screenings in August by coalition forces.

• The Baghdad Health Department has established mobile medical camps in five regions of the country where care is scant. Each center can accommodate more than 600 patients.

• As of August, 101,000 Iraqi security personnel with general police capabilities and another 81,900 with military qualifications were on board. Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the Multinational Security Transition Command, said recently that more than 110 Iraqi police and army combat battalions are "in the fight."

• Iraq had 351 trained judges in May 2005, compared with none in May 2003. Phase one of the $865,000 Basra courthouse reconstruction is complete.

• In 2000, 3.6 million children were enrolled in primary school. By the 2003-04 school year, it was 4.3 million.

• More than 600 children will return to renovated or rebuilt schools in the Maysan Province this fall. Eight new schools in the Wassit and Babil Provinces will get new furniture before the school year begins in six weeks.

• As of August, the production of electricity averaged 96,478 megawatt-hours, compared with an estimated 95,000 megawatt-hours before the war. Nevertheless, more than 90 percent of urban Iraqis remain dissatisfied with the quality and quantity of electric service.

• A $13 million electrical distribution project to serve 128,000 more people recently was begun in Sadr City. Construction began on the $3.8 million Al Rayash Electricity Substation project in the Salah Ad Din Province. It is supposed to provide reliable service to 50,000 residences and small businesses. The Fallujah electrical system is to be completed in two weeks.

• In February, 79 percent of urban Iraqis reported having water service in their homes.

• The just-completed Baghdad trunk sewer line will serve about 2 million people.

• Estimated prewar telephone subscribers: 833,000. In August, including cellular service unavailable before: 3,959,562.

• More than 170 independent newspapers are in print, compared with none before. Eighty commercial radio stations and 29 television stations are operational; pre-war: zero.

• Paving of the Al-Cement factory village road, 7 kilometers long, is about 38 percent complete in the Najaf Province.

• After being grounded by sanctions for 14 years, Iraqi Airways operates 20 flights a week to destinations in the Middle East. A flight to London from Baghdad is expected to begin by October. Half a dozen foreign airlines fly into and out of Baghdad.

• Some 97 railway stations have been renovated; 28 more will follow. The railway runs from southern to northern Iraq with about 1,260 miles of track. Refurbishing of the Baghdad station is scheduled to be completed in December.

Complete column:

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=...&u_rnd=8085399

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