"For Iraqis, a Symbol of Unkept Promises"

[Jason McCullough]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-school1jun01,1,7850891.story?coll=la-home-headlines

BAGHDAD — Past the charred remains of a U.S. military truck, down a pitted road lined with rubble sits Shura Primary School.

Outside, the squat schoolhouse glistens with fresh lime-green paint, courtesy of the renovation spree launched by the U.S.-led coalition. Inside, the floors are buckled, the blackboards are scarred, and the bathrooms are little more than open-air sewage pits. There is one working water fountain for 1,125 students, who must pick their way through a parking lot strewn with mounds of trash to get to the school's front doors.

Yeah, things are going just great.

[extarbags]

That's not trash they have to pick through! It's perseverance!

[Doug Erickson]

TYPICAL LIBERAL, FOCUSING ON ONE BAD AND ENTIRELY LIMITED SITUATION

CERTAINLY, THE IRAQIS ARE CELEBRATING

[Duality]

Maybe they just rant out of flower petals and decided to throw garbage?

[Dirt]

Maybe they just rant out of flower petals and decided to throw garbage?

How much of Iraq is getting water now? Maybe they aren't getting enough to grow flowers.

[Brian Koontz]

Maybe they just rant out of flower petals and decided to throw garbage?

How much of Iraq is getting water now? Maybe they aren't getting enough to grow flowers.

Flowers can be grown with Love! Love for America!

[CindySue22]

Count on the LA Times to find a negative aspect in Iraq.

And count on you guys to post it.


:roll:

[Ben Sones]

Count on the LA Times to find a negative aspect in Iraq.

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, and assume that you are being sarcastic. Finding a "negative aspect" in Iraq is sort of like finding a light for your cigarette on the surface of the sun.

[Peter Frazier]

So what's stopping people from picking up the rubbish and trying to fix up the school that their kids go to? Doesn't Allah help those who help themselves as well?

[Jason McCullough]

Fear of gettting blown up probably has something to do with it. People aren't exactly out there fixing up US inner cities for fun, either. Yeah, they exist, but not enough to matter.

[Jim F.]

Not to be flip, but what are they going to use to fix the place up? With the rampant unemployment and skyhigh prices, most can't afford to keep the fridge stocked much less spend the millions it takes to fix a school.

As for the garbage in the parking lot, I'm assuming there isn't exactly an Iraqi Garbage Company coming by every morning to carry it off to the landfill.

[Peter Frazier]

Not being too flip back, but surely the rampant unemployment means that there are plenty of idle hands able to help. If fear of being blown up is the reason, why the hell are they sending their kids there?
It reminds me of a passage from 'Citizen Soldiers' where it was stated that out of all the nationalities in liberated Europe, the GIs respected the German civilians the most. The French and Italian civilians would wait for the allied engineers to come along and fix all the problems whereas the Germans would be out fixing things as soon as the front line moved forward.
Yeah, I know, completely different kettle of fish, but it still sounds a bit cargo-cultish.

[Jason McCullough]

I don't recall people up and volunteering to do public works for free in the Great Depression. Sure, theoretically it's a good idea, but it never seems to happen.