CFR Analyzes Iraq Rebuilding

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has published a new backgrounder by CFR staff writer Greg Bruno. The backgrounder, titled "Rebuilding Iraq," was published December 12 and is available on the CFR web site.

According to the backgrounder, Iraq's infrastructure has been in a state of decline since the 1970s, with the quality of public services decreasing as a result of the Iran-Iraq war, international sanctions, and the ongoing U.S. military operations as a result of the 2003 invasion that deposed Saddam Hussein. And despite the continued high levels of violence in Iraq, the backgrounder says that progress is being made with power production levels at their highest point in four years, ongoing government clean up efforts on the streets and in the parks, and rising oil production levels.

CFR notes that the United States Army Corps of Engineers is working on a sewage treatment plant in Fallujah, which the city has never had. Fallujah, which is located just to the west of Baghdad, has been one of Iraq's most violent cities and was the target of two massive U.S. military operations designed to root out insurgents and reduce the level of violence. Additionally, the backgrounder says, road construction continues and civil-society projects are in full swing throughout Iraq. Stephen Biddle, senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, says in the backgrounder, "On services like electricity things have been improving lately, in large part I suspect because the volume of attacks on infrastructure has gone down."