Article

2006-09-29 Iraq

Crucial Iraq police academy "a disaster"

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Steve White 2006-09-29 00:00|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Gosh, sounds like building contractors after Hurricane Andrew.

Posted by gromky 2006-09-29 00:34|| 2006-09-29 00:34|| Front Page Top

#2 Gosh, sounds like building contractors after Hurricane Andrew.

Sounds more like the buildings after Hurricane Andrew.

Were they building on sand? It can be done but you have to prepare the area properly first. I find it hard to believe the Army would screw something up this bad without help from some civilian contractor who promised way more than they could deliver. I'd sure like to see what sort of oversight mechanism they had in place. I'll bet a dollar to a dime they were too busy building something else to bother to even stop by and check things from time to time. Didn't they even see if the ground was being prepared properly? Who his suppliers were? Inspect his supplies and his construction methods?

But you know, things in the US aren't all that great even though they work with the blessing of much firmer ground than you'll find there. Seems more and more like the job got contracted out to some overconfident ignoramus who thought he'd make a quick buck but hopefully will find himself in some serious hot water real soon. Along with those who were supposed to be overseeing the work.

And where did that $75M go? To the US economy or the Iraqi? You'd think the Iraqis could build it for a few million, so I'll bet most of it went to workers and suppliers here in the US and if the work was done in good faith it's probably lost.

Posted by gorb 2006-09-29 02:10|| 2006-09-29 02:10|| Front Page Top

#3 I smell pilferage. It is common practise in the Third World for public construction administrators to use building materials for their own homes. As for the lack of oversight, that is what you get when you throw money at problems. Iraq police recruits are so poorly paid that the temptation to accept infiltrator' money is strong.

My theory is that forcing regime change in Iran, will cause a dry up of Sunni funding from some of the House of Saud, who would have no cause to face down Shiites. Bush will have to play the Sunni card, and it should work. Otherwise the Sunni-Shiite killing spree will never end.

Ahmadinejad is prisoner to belligerent rhetoric. We won't see his innocuous smile for much longer.

Posted by Snease Shaiting3550 2006-09-29 02:27|| 2006-09-29 02:27|| Front Page Top

#4 No doubt floggings are in order. Prison, too. Make mismanagement and laziness hurt. Bad. As for pilferage (no doubts here) and the other contributing factors, we're dealing with Arabs. If you don't know that this fact sufficiently covers the topic, then you don't know Arabs. A joke I heard in S.A.: all deals made with Arabs are round - they cut every corner.

Posted by .com 2006-09-29 02:36|| 2006-09-29 02:36|| Front Page Top

#5 all deals made with Arabs are round - they cut every corner.

I'm confident they could find corners to cut on a perfect sphere.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2006-09-29 05:56|| 2006-09-29 05:56|| Front Page Top

#6 Parsons probably delegated the task to a local Iraqi subcontractor. You can do that in European countries. You can do that in most of East Asia, including even in China (sure, they'll pocket some of it, but the building will go up, and it will remain standing). But you can't do that in an Arab country.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2006-09-29 06:25|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2006-09-29 06:25|| Front Page Top

#7 This should all be tracable, so let's stop complaining and pick up the responsible parties.

Posted by wxjames 2006-09-29 09:40|| 2006-09-29 09:40|| Front Page Top

#8 Why don't we just kill the assholes that are giving us all the trouble in Iraq? I don't understand why we have been pussyfooting around for years now. We know who they are, but for some reason lack the balls to grab the bull by the horns and send in the marines.

Posted by Clereque Ebberemp1305 2006-09-29 15:30|| 2006-09-29 15:30|| Front Page Top

23:54 anon
23:53 JustAsking
23:51 anon
23:50 SR-71
23:50 trailing wife
23:48 Iblis
23:47 anon
23:42 Zenster
23:39 Classical_Liberal
23:32 Zenster
23:29 RD
23:27 Sherry
23:16 Zenster
23:10 Old Patriot
22:47 ed
22:36 ed
22:35 gorb
22:25 Ptah
22:25 JosephMendiola
22:25 Hyper
22:25 ed
22:21 Ptah
22:20 anon
22:19 Jackal