Today's Iraq

A nice list of things about today's Iraq over at The Braden Files Cherry-picking a few examples:

• Did you know that 47 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq?
• Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 schools are now under construction and 38 new schools have been built in Iraq?
• Did you know that Iraq�s higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers?
• Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2004 for the re-established Fulbright program?
• Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3500 new officers each 8 weeks?
• Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq? They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.
• Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?
• Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?
• Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158%?
• Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consist of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?

Good stuff... From The Braden Files again: bq. Of course we didn't know! bq. Why didn't we know? Because a Bush-hating media and Democratic Party would rather see the world blow up than lose their power. bq. Instead of shouting these accomplishments from every rooftop, they would rather show photos of what a few perverted malcontent soldiers have done in prisons in many cases never disclosing the circumstances surrounding the events. bq. Instead of showing our love for our country, we get photos of flag burning incidents at Abu Ghraib and people throwing snowballs at presidential motorcades. bq. The lack of accentuating the positive in Iraq serves several purposes, none of them good. It undermines the world's perception of the United States and our soldiers' morale. And it continues to give aid and comfort to the enemy. A phrase you'll find in the dictionary, under such headings as "treason" and "sedition." bq. If there is anything to be ashamed of about Iraq, it's fellow Americans who would rather see terrorism succeed than a Republican president. Something to think about as we continue to have incidents like Eason and Ra^thergate