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The Mosul Dam is an epic display in poor structural design- and continued mis-management according to a report filed by the Army Corp of Engineers.
The largest dam in Iraq is in serious danger of an imminent collapse that could unleash a trillion-gallon wave of water, possibly killing thousands of people and flooding two of the largest cities in the country, according to new assessments by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other U.S. officials.
Even in a country gripped by daily bloodshed, the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam has alarmed American officials, who have concluded that it could lead to as many as 500,000 civilian deaths by drowning Mosul under 65 feet of water and parts of Baghdad under 15 feet, said Abdulkhalik Thanoon Ayoub, the dam manager. “The Mosul dam is judged to have an unacceptable annual failure probability,” in the dry wording of an Army Corps of Engineers draft report.
Well, doesn’t that sound promising? Of course- we’re now taking bets on which project that the Army Corp of Engineers finishes first- the Mosul Dam, or fixing the construction projects that are already behind schedule in New Orleans.
The proceding quote was not by any means intended as a metaphor for the country of Iraq, or the U.S.’s actions in the Middle East. Really.
The effort to prevent a failure of the dam has been complicated by behind-the-scenes wrangling between Iraqi and U.S. officials over the severity of the problem and how much money should be allocated to fix it. The Army Corps has recommended building a second dam downstream as a fail-safe measure, but Iraqi officials have rejected the proposal, arguing that it is unnecessary and too expensive.
You know… the people of various nations have always found disasters of this scale to be points to rally around and unite as a people. Perhaps if we just let the Iraqi officials do their jobs and govern Iraq the way they want to at this moment- should the dam break… maybe it could finally be the thing to bring the country together. Eh… I’m just riffing here, just tossing out ideas. All I know is this-
Should the Dam break- and Iraq flood, for the love of all that is good, don’t anyone put a camera and microphone in front of Kanye West.
Oh… and by the way… we now have a new breed of terrorists to fight in Afghanistan.
Afghan police officers working a highway checkpoint near here noticed something odd recently about a passenger in a red pickup truck. Though covered head to toe in a burqa, the traditional veil worn by Afghan women, she was unusually tall. When the police asked her questions, she refused to answer.
When the veil was eventually removed, the police found not a woman at all, but Andre Vladimirovich Bataloff, a 27-year-old man from Siberia with a flowing red beard, pasty skin and piercing blue eyes. Inside the truck was 1,000 pounds of explosives.
Great… highly explosive cross-dressers. Surely this is all a sign of the pending apocalypse…
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