OK, I took Jonathan's advice and did a couple hours of reading off of sites found by Googling "Good news Iraq".
This was really refreshing. Franlky, I'm very impressed with the number of good things happening in Iraq. I am even more convinced that the liberal media has been full of lies from the beginning.
In general these stories are about the dull details of making things work and restoring a country that has suffered 30 years of violent oppression.
Here are a few of the sites I visited:
EuphoricReality
Villianouscompany
Kmax
Nydailynews
July 7, 2008
WASHINGTON (AFP) At Iraq's request, the US military recently transferred hundreds of metric tons of yellowcake uranium from Iraq to Canada in a secret, weeks-long operation, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday.
The 550 metric tons of uranium, which was sold to a Canadian company, was moved by truck convoy to Baghdad's "Green Zone," then flown by military aircraft to a third country where it was put on a ship for Canada, said Bryan Whitman, the spokesman.
"The operation was completed over the weekend, on Saturday," Whitman said.
The yellow cake was discovered by US troops after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq at the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Facility south of Baghdad, and was placed under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Yellowcake is a form of processed uranium ore that can be used to make fuel for nuclear reactors, or if further enriched as fuel for nuclear weapons.
Whitman said the Iraqi government asked the United States for help in selling and transferring the uranium to another country.
Cameco, a Canadian company, agreed to buy the yellowcake for a reported sum in the tens of millions of dollars.
The cost to the United States of transferring the uranium came to about 70 million dollars, Whitman said. He said the Iraqi government has agreed in principle to repay part of the transfer costs.
The US State and Energy Departments also played roles in the operation, Whitman said. But the Defense Department took the lead in carrying out the transfer, he said.
It took 110 shipping containers to carry the drums loaded with yellowcake, he said.
They were transferred by convoy from Tuwaitha to a secure facility within the Green Zone, the international zone, Whitman said.
Then they were flown by C-17 military transport planes to an undisclosed third country. Whitman said it took 37 planeloads to complete that portion of the transfer.
"At this intermediate location the cargo was loaded onto a US-flagged cargo ship, a military sealift container ship, the USS Gopher State," he said.
Whitman said the arrangements for the sale began several months ago, but the transfer itself took "weeks not months."
With the transfer, no yellowcake was known to be left in Iraq, Whitman said.
News of the operation broke over the weekend when Cameco acknowledged the arrival of the uranium shipment at Montreal.
Lyle Khran, a Cameco spokesman, said the company had responded to a bid request made last year by the US government.
"We are satisfied at having been able to remove uranium from one of the most unstable regions of the world, and to have transfered it to a stable region to produce our own electric power," he said on Sunday.
He said the yellowcake would be used at the Blind River and Port Hope nuclear power plants north of Toronto.
© 2008 Agence France-Presse
Place holder for 2007 accomplishments
September 5, 2007 -- One week before Gen. David Petraeus is expected to give his report on U.S. progress in Iraq, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric says she has already seen dramatic improvements in the country.
"We hear so much about things going bad, but real progress has been made there in terms of security and stability," Couric said Tuesday. "I mean, obviously, infrastructure problems abound, but Sunnis and U.S. forces are working together. They banded together because they had a common enemy: al Qaeda."
August 21, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton told a veterans group yesterday that President Bush's troop surge is working -- but that it is still time to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq. "It's working. We're just years too late in our tactics," she said, referring to the beefed-up U.S. troop presence battling insurgents in Iraq, including war-torn Anbar province. "We can't be fighting the last war. We have to keep preparing to fight the new war. We have to win. "I think the best way of honoring their service is bringing them home," she told the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas City. Clinton's positive assessment of the troop surge puts her in agreement with some high-ranking military officials and scholars, but in direct opposition to many fellow Democrats.
18-July: US Military arrests highest-ranking Iraqi leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, who was captured in Mosul on July 4, carried messages from bin Laden, and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, to the Egyptian-born head of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Ayub al-Masri, said Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a military spokesman.
Place holder for 2006 accomplishments
Place holder for 2005 accomplishments
Place holder for 2004 accomplishments
Here is a list of improvements made before 2004.
- Over 400,000 kids have up-to-date immunizations.
- School attendance is up 80% from levels before the war.
- Over 1,500 schools have been renovated and rid of the weapons stored there so education can occur.
- The port of Uhm Qasar was renovated so grain can be off-loaded from ships faster.
- The country had its first 2 billion barrel export of oil in August.
- Over 4.5 million people have clean drinking water for the first time ever in Iraq.
- The country now receives 2 times the electrical power it did before the war.
- 100% of the hospitals are open and fully staffed, compared to 35% before the war.
- Elections are taking place in every major city, and city councils are in place.
- Sewer and water lines are installed in every major city.
- Over 60,000 police are patrolling the streets.
- Over 100,000 Iraqi civil defense police are securing the country.
- Over 80,000 Iraqi soldiers are patrolling the streets side by side with US soldiers.
- Over 400,000 people have telephones for the first time ever.
- Students are taught field sanitation and hand washing techniques to prevent the spread of germs.
- An interim constitution has been signed.
- Girls are allowed to attend school.
That's a list of good things. I'm glad to read it.
I don't feel too good about the Iraqi police, soldiers, etc. In mid-2007, Brig. Gen. Pittard says ""it'll take years" for Iraqi security forces to become self-reliant in protecting the country from internal and foreign threats. He suggested that it will be at least two years before the forces, which number 348,000, can "fully take control" of the situation in Iraq." (link)
Some "liars" claim that a significant fraction of hospital staff are members of the Mahdi militia and/or death squads: link 1, link2
They also claim that rebuilding projects often don't have much longevity: link