Is This What Reconstruction Means? Iraqi brick factory kicks into high gear - UPI.com

"The way I look at this hanging job, somebody has to do it. I got into it kind of by accident, years ago in the States" --U.S. Master Sergeant John C. Woods, Executioner @ Nuremberg

UPI:

Iraqi brick factory kicks into high gear
April 1, 2008 at 7:45 PM

BAGHDAD, April 1 (UPI) -- Production at Iraq's largest brick factory swung into high gear Tuesday, boosting employment opportunities in a project that cost the U.S. taxpayer nothing.

The Narhwan Brick Factory Complex east of Baghdad houses 167 facilities, each independently owned and operated by Iraqis. The complex produced roughly 4 million bricks a day in late February and those numbers should go up dramatically, said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Mark Sullivan, the commander of operations there.

Following several "clear and hold" operations in October that targeted insurgents using the complex as a stronghold, Sullivan and his team took the opportunity to bring the facility back online.

Sullivan called a meeting with the owners of the facilities, as well as tribal and local leaders, to discuss coordination with the Iraqi government on issues such as electricity and supplies of heavy fuel oil needed to fire the kilns. The high turnout prompted Sullivan to ask the officials to nominate four members to act as union delegates to liaise with Baghdad.

After convincing ministers in Baghdad of the merit of the project, production at the facility began to pick up steam in January, Sullivan said.

Sullivan put the initial job estimates for the facility at about 10,000 Iraqis but said increased production could put that over 25,000 as the season picks up. The facility employed some 3,000 workers in early January with production levels at around 250,000 bricks per day, but production quadrupled in the first months of the year.

With production entering full swing in April and orders coming not only from the government, but approved contractors, the facility should continue to be a success, Sullivan said. [Source]

Methinks blast wall factories would be a better investment in the near to mid to long-term.

Besides lack of security to protect brick constructed buildings (the brick fragments are like glass shrapnel when hit by (not so) 'smart bombs'), the bricks are also easy to throw at the occupying army, which will cause many more civilian casualties.

As any Palestinian can tell you, brick throwing is a capital crime... and you will be shot on sight.

At this juncture, I would like to re-inform my readers that Iraq was an highly industrialized, secular society, and now we CHEER! (Hurrah!)... because a brick factory comes online.

There's GOTTA be a war crime between 'then' and 'now' that we can 'hang' (as in the Nuremberg tribunal meaning of 'hang') the Bush administration and it's cronies with...

Just different places, with different faces, but the same War-mongering PIGS

"...the conclusion of the trials at Nuremberg, in which 11 high-ranking Nazi officers were ultimately condemned to death by hanging. One of them, Hermann Göring, managed to finish himself in his cell with a cyanide capsule just hours before the execution was to take place, but the others took their trip to the gallows.

Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler’s foreign minister, was the first to go. From an Oct. 28, 1946 dispatch in Time magazine headlined “Night Without Dawn” (the ellipses are in the original):

At 1:11 a.m. he entered the gymnasium, and all officers, official witnesses and correspondents rose to attention. Ribbentrop’s manacles were removed and he mounted the steps (there were 13) to the gallows. With the noose around his neck, he said: “My last wish … is an understanding between East and West. …” All present removed their hats. The executioner tightened the noose. A chaplain standing beside him prayed. The assistant executioner pulled the lever, the trap dropped open with a rumbling noise, and Ribbentrop’s hooded figure disappeared. The rope was suddenly taut, and swung back & forth, creaking audibly.

The executioner was U.S. Master Sergeant John C. Woods, 43, of San Antonio, a short, chunky man who in his 15 years as U.S. Army executioner has hanged 347 people. Said he afterwards: “I hanged those ten Nazis … and I am proud of it. … I wasn’t nervous. … A fellow can’t afford to have nerves in this business. … I want to put in a good word for those G.I.s who helped me … they all did swell. … I am trying to get [them] a promotion. … The way I look at this hanging job, somebody has to do it. I got into it kind of by accident, years ago in the States “

Ten more executions would follow that evening, but for all of Sergeant Woods’ experience (and for all of the collected wisdom the military had at its disposal on proper hanging techniques), the Nuremberg executions were, it seems, a ghoulishly untidy affair. In Full @ The New York Times

There Have Been

Thanks For Stopping By