Saddam's Dam
Reader comment on item: Saddam's Damn Dam [i.e., The Mosul Dam]

Submitted by J. Gutknecht (Germany), Nov 8, 2007 at 08:45

... I don't know when you were in Mosul last. Security is a huge problem, not even Turkish truck drivers drive through Mosul, so saying, "Let's leave the problem to the Iraqis" is a bit cynical, really. Everyone knows that the Iraqis by themselves cannot fix the dam and no foreign company will even consider working on it as long as the security situation is not a lot (!) better in and around Mosul.

Now providing security is one of the main failures of the US policy in Iraq right from the beginning of this war, and unfortunately the US will continue to pay the price for that for a long time to come. As long as the US is the only robust power in Iraq, leaving it to others (whoever they are) will not help a thing but just make it worse. Whatever happens to the dam, the US will be seen as being responsible, and rightly so. You may not like it, but that's the reality on the ground.

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