WELL, AT LEAST WE'RE GETTING BARGAIN ON SOMETHING IN IRAQ

[mburbank]

Six in Ten Iraqis Unemployed, but U. S. Subcontractors Hire Cheap Migrant Laborers
From the Daily Mislead.


Even though seven million Iraqis are unemployed1, U.S. sub-contractors are rebuilding the Iraqi infrastructure with cheap migrant labor from South Asia.2 The use of Asian laborers is at odds with President Bush's emphasis on the importance of Iraqis taking on the job themselves.

Bush has said the key to "rebuilding a democratic and prosperous Iraq is the Iraqi people themselves."3 Paul Bremer, the Bush appointee overseeing post-war Iraq, likewise has talked of the need to turn around the country's 60 percent unemployment rate and "to fix a very sick economy."4

However, the head of the Iraqi Jobless Association, Kasem Hadi, is critical of the Bush Administration's lack of progress. "Following four rounds of talks with [Bremer's] representatives, we made no progress regarding the unemployment crisis,"5 Hadi says.

Meanwhile, U.S. Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, one of Bremer's colleagues, has raised questions about the reliability of foreign workers. "You find [them] in out-of-the-way corners taking 15 minute naps," she notes.6

At the same time, officials of the Iraqi Governing Council are concerned that large American contractors, including Halliburton and Bechtel, may be inflating the cost of the reconstruction projects. The Iraqi governors told members of the U.S. Congress that Iraqi companies could be doing the work at 10 percent of the cost.7

Sources:
1. "Iraq: 7 Million Jobless Persons," Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, InfoProd, 8/27/03.
2. "Contractors in Iraq Accused of Importing Labour and Exporting Profit," Financial Times/UK, 10/14/03.
3. Presidential Radio Address, 7/23/03.
4. Interview of Paul Bremer by Tom Brokaw, NBC Nightly News, 7/14/03.
5. "Iraq: 7 Million Jobless Persons," Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, InfoProd, 8/27/03.
6. "Contractors in Iraq Accused of Importing Labour and Exporting Profit," Financial Times/UK, 10/14/03.
7. Letter to OMB Director Joshua Bolten from Rep. Henry Waxman, 9/30/03.

[Zhukov]

naps

Lazy fuckers should get to work.

[mburbank]

Isn't it great that this guys objection is based not on the needs of the Iraqi people, but on his thinking the foreign workers hired for substandard wages are just "Naturally shiftless"?

[DJ Potatoe]

I think it's far more amusing to think that we put a guy like Bush in office....or did we?! Wait a fuckin' minute!! That retard didn't win the popular vote!!!...

...

..

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So, who do we blame for this one?

[mburbank]

The electoral college.

[DJ Potatoe]

Yes, but we need to give them a name. ie: Clyde, or Richard Parkington

[kellychaos]

Originally Posted by mburbank

Isn't it great that this guys objection is based not on the needs of the Iraqi people, but on his thinking the foreign workers hired for substandard wages are just "Naturally shiftless"?

They should work for the Michigan Department of Transportation road crews. That way they can be paid well AND be "naturally shiftless".

[kahljorn]

We should have the write as the people of america to kill the president at any time. Kind of like those trap doors rich/evil people have in the floors in their office, and when someone walks in they push it and fall into a fiery pit and die or onto some spikes. So I'm thinking under bushes chair in his little office could be such a death chamber, and when everyone in america gets tired of him they push their button like a voting thing and if enough push he goes dead dead.

This is my suggestion to making america a better place.

Also it could be one of those things at a fair where you throw a ball at a target and if it gets hithe falls into the water, but instead of water it could be acid. Or acid full of sharks that are specifically bred to live in acid.

[The One and Only...]

I think Lincoln was the worst president we ever had.

Stupid yank33. Support the right to succeed, damn you!!!

Of course, I think we should live in a (not the) confederacy anyway...