Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1st: the
first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has graduated and is on active
duty.
Over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security for their fellow citizens.
Nearly all ofIraq's 400 courts are functioning. and the Iraqi
judiciary is fully independent.
On Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts-exceeding
the prewar average.
All 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open,
as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.
Coalition forces had rehab-ed over 1,500 schools - 500 more than
scheduled.
Teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.
All 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.
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.
Coalition has helped administer over 22 million vaccination doses
toIraq's children.
A Coalition program has cleared over 14,000 kilometers ofIraq's 27,000
weed-choked canals and now irrigates tens of thousands of farms.
This project has created jobs for more than 100,000 Iraqi men and
women.
We have restored over three-quarters of prewar telephone services
and over two-thirds of the potable water production.
There are 4,900 full-service telephone connections. We expect 50,000
by the year's end.
The wheels of commerce are turning. From bicycles to satellite dishes
to cars and truck, businesses are coming to life in all major cities
and towns.
Over 95 percent of all prewar bank customers have service and
first-time and customers are opening accounts daily.
Iraqi banks are making loans to finance businesses. and the central
bank is fully independent.
Iraqhas one of the worlds most growth-oriented investment and banking
laws.
Iraqhas a single, unified currency for the first time in 15 years.
Satellite TV dishes are legal.
Foreign journalists aren't on 10-day visas paying mandatory and
extortionate fees to the Ministry of Information for minders and
other government spies.
There is no longer a Ministry of Information.
There are more than 170 newspapers.
You can buy satellite dishes on what seems like every street corner.
Foreign journalists (and everyone else) are free to come and go.
A nation that had not one single element of a representative
government, now has all three: legislative, judicial and executive.
InBaghdadalone residents have selected 88 advisory councils.Baghdad's
first democratic transfer of power in 35 years happened when the city
council elected its new chairman.
Today inIraq, chambers of commerce, business, school and professional
organizations are electing their leaders all over the country.
25 ministers, selected by the most representative governing body
inIraq's history, run the day-to-day business of government.
The Iraqi government regularly participates in international events.
Since July the Iraqi government has been represented in over two dozen
international meetings, including those of the UN General Assembly.
The Arab League, the World Bank and IMF and the Islamic
ConferenceSummit.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs today announced that it is reopening
over 30 Iraqi embassies around the world.
Shia religious festivals are no longer banned.
For the first time in 35 years, inKarbalathousands of Shiites
celebrate the pilgrimage of the 12th Imam.
The Coalition has completed over 13,000 large and small reconstruction
projects, as part of a strategic plan for the reconstruction ofIraq.
Uday and Qusay are dead - they are no longer feeding innocent Iraqis
to the zoo lions, raping the young daughters of local leaders to force
cooperation, torturingIraq's soccer players for losing games, or
murdering critics.
Children aren't imprisoned or murdered when their parents disagree
with the government.
Political opponents aren't imprisoned, tortured, executed, maimed or
forced to watch their families die for disagreeing with Saddam.
Millions of long suffering Iraqis no longer live in perpetual terror.
Saudis will hold municipal elections.
Qataris reforming education to give more choices to parents.
Jordanis accelerating market economic reforms.
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for the first time to an Iranian - a
Muslim woman who speaks out with courage for human rights, for
democracy and for peace.
Saddam is gone.
Iraqis free.
The United states has not faltered or failed.
Yet, little or none of this information has been published by the
Press corps that prides itself on bringing you ALL the important news.
Almost every Democrat leader in the House and Senate has openly fought
President Bush on every aspect of his handling of this war, including
the post-war reconstruction; and on a daily basis, they continue to
claim on national television that this conflict has been a dismal
failure.
Taking everything into consideration, even the great and unfortunate
loss of our sons and daughters in this conflict, do you think anyone
else in the world could have accomplished as much as our country has
in so short a period of time?
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