Europe rail can work due to the size of Europe, much like the northeast corridor can be successful for Amtrak. Due to the size of the US rail does not work in much of the country. It is easier & cheaper to get from A to B via other methods
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Originally posted by: hoops2
The Amtrak accident had nothing to do with infrastructure. The train was speeding. Amtrak was supposed to make money, but like most commuter rail it loses money. It's best route is the northeast corridor
Which of you rail fans have ever ridden Amtrak?
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Originally posted by: forkushVQuoteColin Powell disagrees:
Originally posted by: chefantwonQuote
Originally posted by: pjstroh
The Iraqi army is running out of cities in its own land. That's the result of 10 years of training their troops and a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars from US taxpayers.
Another in a long line of train derailments occurred in America last week...and the Republican Senate responded by cutting funding for that infrastructure. Many of those same people want another surge in Iraq.
While our infrastructure falls apart the Rumsfeld disciples are most concerned about achieving Bush's land of Oz in the Middle East.
The Republican spending platform for 2016: rebuild Iraq and let America fall apart.
PJ, you are forgetting the structure of the Iraq army. For many years under Saddam, it was a one man dictatorship with orders given and the troops either obeyed or died. It takes time and a spine to get rid of the idiots and replace them with officers who would stay around in a firefight. The Iraq government has a great deal to do with the troops doing the high tail it and run like hell.
"The plan the president had approved was not implemented. Instead, Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, our man in charge in Iraq, disbanded the Army and fired Baath Party members down to teachers. We eliminated the very officials and institutions we should have been building on, and left thousands of the most highly skilled people in the country jobless and angry—prime recruits for insurgency."
