Reconstruction projects provide Iraqis with improvements to essential services

BAGHDAD — U.S. reconstruction efforts are providing successful, tangible results in the lives of Iraqis every day, said Brig. Gen. Michael J. Walsh, commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Walsh addressed the media at two press conferences recently at the Combined Press Information Center – one with Adm. Mark I. Fox from Multi-National Force–Iraq, the other with Ambassador Joseph Saloom from the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office.

“Every day in Iraq we see the successes of the U.S. government’s construction program – better essential services where, in many places, there were none; and 75 percent of the country with twice as much power as before the war,” Walsh said. “Many of the services are things Americans take for granted – access to medical facilities, a fire station or school in your neighborhood, a paved road, clean water.”

(Photo: Spc. Tim J. Smith, a native of Twain-Harte, Calif. and assigned to Company E, 725th Brigade Support Battalion, picks up metal sheets with a fork lift and moving them to another location for stocking of materials. Smith, who is currently a resident of Alaska, is attached to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment stationed at Forward Operating Base Iskan, Iraq. Photo by Sgt. Marcus Butler, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division Public Affairs.)

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