$2 million in computers for iraqi kids sold off port dock for less than $50K...

$2 million in computers for iraqi kids sold off port dock for less than $50K...

en.aswataliraq.info

Umm Qasr customs sold computers in accordance with system – source
August 27, 2010 - 07:25:55
BASRA / Aswat al-Iraq: The Umm Qasr Customs Department has sold school-oriented computers in accordance with the established customs system 90 days after they had arrived at the port, according to official in charge of information in the More..Iraq ports company on Friday.

(visit the link for the full news article)

What a crying shame.. Hopefully, one way or another, these computers get into class rooms and into the childrens homes.

A whole new generation with a PC in every class, thanks to the US. That's worth fighting for... It will revolutionize the whole country in 1 decade.

They will find them, I have confidence. US forces are no longer on combat duty, so let them be on the PC hunt

en.aswataliraq.info
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by CanadianDream420


They dont seem to be lost..They were sold!!

Just another corrupt day in a war zone...

s&f

What's the point of computers? Poor bastards don't have electricity anyway.

One day, history will judge us harshly, just for living in these sad times.

You have to hang your head in shame when you hear of the plight of the Iraqi people.

All the best, kiwi




[edit on 29-8-2010 by kiwifoot]

“The system of selling material a period after they were not received by a certain quarter is something that has to do with the Customs Department,” he said, adding the ports do not have anything to do with that.

Uhh... What?

Originally posted by kiwifoot

What's the point of computers, poor bastards don't have electricity anyway.

One day, history will judge us harshly, just for living in these sad times.

You have to hang your head in shame when you hear of the plight of the Iraqi people.

All the best, kiwi

[edit on 29-8-2010 by kiwifoot]

Is that how you got so many S&F's?.. by denouncing the U.S any chance you get?

reply to post by CanadianDream420


How was the post anti-American? The poster is right; food, shelter, clothing are far more important than computers.

As much as I would like to see this kids get computers, I surely don't want to and can't pay for them. Geez, we can't even afford proper education for own kids. What makes it even worse, is that the computers didn't even get to their destination, so we will probably buy them more.

What a shame! I'm sure the government paid far more for these machines than they are worth. So again, the only people getting screwed, are the Americans.

--airspoon

reply to post by airspoon

computers purchased by U.S. forces to offer as a gift to schools in Babel

Not sure, but this quote seems to indicate the troops donated these comps..

If so, there may be some peed off troops.

Either way you are still correct..US money wasted yet again..

It seems that the school didn't bother to pick them up.

We should just get out of there. We can only do bad things there. When we try to do good, it fails. Maybe they don't want anything from USA and just hate our guts. I would not be surprised.

Just ... leave. Really leave. Don't have 50,000 "non-combat" troops, that's BS. Really really leave, go, get out, exit, scram, like that.

[edit on 29-8-2010 by oniongrass]

I have to say that I agree. Time to bring 'em home. All of them.

If the Iraqis fall into anarchy in our absence, at least it we won't be involved. They've had years now to get their crap together and pull together as a nation. If they can't even do that after all this time, then we are just wasting our time and resources over there.

Of course I was really sort of kidding, because we'll never leave.

We've built one of the largest buildings in the world as our "embassy" in the Green Zone in Baghdad. We aren't going anywhere!

The people in Iraq would be happier if the electricity were reliable. The way it was before we came to rescue them.

I find it kinda sad when I see people posting about all the "good" work the foreign occupiers are doing in Iraq. Bringing technology, education, infrastructure for clean water, sewage, hospitals, electricity etc.
What they seem to be ignorant of is the fact that Iraq had all that. Iraq was one of the most westernised and advanved countries in the Middle East.
During the 80's, the company I worked for at the time was supplying huge amounts of equipment for Iraqi universities, especially for the civil engineering and building industries. It wasn't like they were a bunch of rag head camel jockey tent dwellers, which seems to be the impression many appear to have, and that the good 'ol Western world is doing so much for them.

They had it already. We, or should I say our Governments, blew it all away and now offer the rebuilding to Western corporations, who are laughing all the way to the bank and ordering up another round of large ones at the club to celebrate their fattened wallets!

What the war, if it can even be called a war, brough to Iraq was a destruction of their country, religious upheaval, Western style corrupt government / banking / trade practices and the death of tens of thousands - not even counting those condemned to early death through the use of certain types of weaponry. There seems to also have been a concerted effort to eradicate Iraqi professionals and academics, further hitting their ability to rebuild by themselves. I'm sure all this was by design and likely instigated and carried out by our own black-ops and alphabet agencies, to prevent stability.

The amount of taxpayer money poured into Iraq, and subsequently lost / unaccounted for, even before the Iraqi government, such as it is, was even formed is staggering and to this day largely uninvestigated. It was nothing more than an oportunity for profiteering on the part of the government's favoured contractors (who formulate government policy in the first place through embedded lobbyists), the military industrial murder machine and financial powerhouses.

This latest little misappropriation of equipment is just another in a long list of such cases and there will be many more to come. An opportunity presented itself and someone profited, isn't that what modern warfare is all about though? Making people or corporations rich? If peace broke out all over, just think of the financial ramifications!

[edit on 29-8-2010 by Britguy]

reply to post by Britguy


This is a good post. Star from me.

_______________________________

I understand that some people like to bash America, and some are sensitive to this. But ciriticizing our government for the piss poor manner in which they have conducted themselves, on OUR behalf, is not only fully American, it is a patriotic duty.

I will not be shouted down for calling our government out for its stupidity and evil actions. And I would hope that others, while among patriots, would not be shouted down, either.

America is a great place, but We The People have slept while tyrants ruin our good name. If it pisses you off to hear the criticism, then be part of the solution.

___________________________________

More on topic, this is a crying shame. A shame that our military would use a commercial port to ship/deliver goods within Iraq. A shame that while "left at port" (seems like code speak for "it was a payoff to some organization') it was sold off.

I cannot say that I am surprised. Americans like to give. But we are horrible at making sure that someone is being responsible with what we give.

Umm Qasr customs sold computers in accordance with system – source
August 27, 2010 - 07:25:55

That would never happen!

hmmm....
guess maybe al quada needed some better computers???

I kind of think that maybe it wasn't the school that was supposed to pick them up.....sounds like alot to invest in just one school....
more than likely, they were going to be picked up by some group that was gonna distribute them to various schools....and they just failed to show up....

or well.....maybe it was a tricky was to pay off some bribe....
or maybe bin laden just needed a new laptop.


just another million or so dollar oooops...

reply to post by Britguy


Thank you for that post.

How anyone can believe that we were in Iraq to "do good" at this point is beyond me. You have to be willfully ignorant to think for a second the motive for the US being in Iraq, or Afghanistan was humanitarian.

Mind you what the troops are told we are doing, and what they might think we are doing is not the point. I am not bashing the troops. They obviously wouldnt go down there and risk their lives and limbs for an economic war. Which is the reason these wars are sold to us via propaganda as "wars of mercy" or some bull# like that, but how anyone can still believe that line of crap after all these years is beyond me.

We are fighting those wars to secure resources and ensure that governments are in place who will allow the removal of those resources. There is no humanitarian motive outside of the fiction they sell to our people so that we stand by and do nothing while other human beings are slaughtered for their resources.

Originally posted by CynicalM
reply to post by airspoon

 

computers purchased by U.S. forces to offer as a gift to schools in Babel

Not sure, but this quote seems to indicate the troops donated these comps..

If so, there may be some peed off troops.

Either way you are still correct..US money wasted yet again..

I take that to mean that the computers were bought by US tax-payers, not donations made by troops. I'm sure if they were personal donations made by troops, they would have indicated it as such. Instead, the computers were probably purchased with tax-payer money alloted for "rebuilding".

What really gets me, is that everytime I see things like this, I can't help but to think back, before the war, when Bush promised us all that Iraqi oil would pay for the whole war. Instead, Iraqi oil paid US corporations and tax-payers were footed with the bill.

--airspoon

--airspoon

Can't believe what I'm reading on here...
I guess that's ATS for ya.

BELIEVE ME, I wish NATO didn't go into Iraq but we did and that can NEVER be changed.. So look at the brighter side.

I never said the universities and downtown offices didn't have computers and were "rag-head camel jockies"... but I don't believe every classroom had computers, but neither does US/Canada either.

Iraq was the most "Westernized" country... I thought it was Iran?

Anyways... IMO, by 2020 violence will quell and the now Iraqi teenagers will be grown up and see the good in it. If you don't feel that way then fine.. but you're bringing some of us down. US intervention worked in Japan, Germany, Peru, not so much Iran...

[edit on 29-8-2010 by CanadianDream420]

Originally posted by CanadianDream420
Anyways... IMO, by 2020 violence will quell and the now Iraqi teenagers will be grown up and see the good in it.

True. Which is one of the reasons we want to send computers to Iraq when we cant even afford to educate our own children in the US decently. Computers, TV's etc, are great ways to propagandize people. A great way to spread the message that "no matter how badly it hurt when we were screwing you, it was really for your own good."

Just like we Americans, and apparently some Canadians, have learned to "see the good in" our government going rogue and acting at the behest of corporate and other economic interests, and not for its people. You know, like one would expect in a Democracy. In ten years, we will look back on the pillaging of the American coffers for these wars, and bailouts, etc., and we will see the good in it.

Not because there is any "good in it" for the majority of us. But because we will hear nothing but how everything horrible being done to America or other countries IS good, and for our good, and many of us will suck it right up.