Friday, May 21, 2004
Iraq reconstruction: Universities still trashed, with only $8 of $500 million spent
The actual situation is bad enough, but there was one quote that just leaped out at me....
"Theoretical carpentry," don't you just love it?
Because it's so much like everything else about this farcical war: "theoretical freedom," "theoretical democracy," "theoretical WMDs"...
The United States has failed to rebuild Iraq's university system just weeks before the planned handover of control, [John A. Agresto], the top American education adviser to Iraq told The Associated Press on Friday.
Congress has provided only about $8 million of the $500 million needed to repair damage resulting mainly from postwar looting, and foreign governments have done little more, John A. Agresto said in an interview at Samford University, where he was scheduled to give a commencement speech Saturday.
As a result, Agresto said thousands of Iraqi university students and faculty members do not have basic supplies like desks and chairs, and teaching equipment stolen from technical schools has not been replaced.
At some vocational colleges, students learn "theoretical carpentry" because they lack tools, he said.
(via AP)
"Theoretical carpentry," don't you just love it?
Because it's so much like everything else about this farcical war: "theoretical freedom," "theoretical democracy," "theoretical WMDs"...
