Shit Bird

--Under Construction, Emad Hajjaj

Yeah, down by the river
Down by the banks of the river Charles
That's where you'll find me
Along with lovers, fuggers, and thieves
--Dirty Water, The Standells

Water, water everywhere
nor any drop to drink
--The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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The AP reports, "Iraq Suffers from Dirty Waters, Fear About Cholera," but this is not a new story:

Just months after Americans repaired a sewage treatment plant in southern Baghdad, insurgents attacked the facility and killed the manager. Looters took care of the rest. Nearly three years later, the plant remains an abandoned shell. Raw sewage is still flowing freely through giant pipes into the Tigris River, ending up in some of the capital's drinking water. And those pipes are hardly the only source of contamination.

Two-thirds of Baghdad's raw sewage still flows untreated into waterways, wrote Stuart Bowen, inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, in his quarterly report released last week.

1st question: Who broke the sewage plant? 2nd: If the Iraqis can't repair a sewage treatment facility, how are they going to run a country? Sewage treatment is a pretty basic governmental function. More important than symbolic elections placing puppets on the throne.

The report blames the looting on "extremists" who early on wanted to foment anger against the U.S. forces.

"Law and order broke down, with looters stealing pipes, power lines and other equipment."

Ranger wonders how many purple thumbs were complicit in stealing those materials? All power devolves from the electorate and so does all looting, whether from the top or the bottom of the totem pole.

Iraq's water treatment is an Iraq problem. Haven't these people heard of outhouses or septic tanks? How did any of this become a U.S. problem? It is three years on and still no sewage treatment in southern Baghdad. At some point we will have to flush the problem from our slate.