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To: carranza2 who wrote (9405)	9/25/2003 5:36:22 PM
From: gamesmistress	Respond to of 793731

Yoo-hoo, CNN!!!! Yo! New York Times! Here's a great story on entrepreneurship in Iraq! Oh, wait...never mind...it's from Centcom. 354th Civil Affairs Brigade encourages young entrepreneurs in Baghdad by Spc. Ryan Smith BAGHDAD, Iraq - - A business meeting focused on creating business opportunities and entrepreneurship for young businessmen and women in Iraq was held at the Iraqi Forum in Baghdad Sept. 20. Spc. Varetta Barnes, a civil affairs specialist with the 354th Civil Affairs Brigade, an Army Reserve unit from Riverdale, Md., hosted the meeting of the Entrepreneur Business Professionals of Iraq, in which more than 200 business professionals between the ages of 21 and 35 heard lectures on topics related to entrepreneurship. The 354th Civil Affairs Brigade is part of Task Force 1st Armored Division for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Guest speakers from Kellogg, Brown and Root, Bechtel, the Ministry of Housing and Construction, and the 354th Civil Affairs Brigade spoke about topics such as obtaining contracts from companies and investing in the stock market. The speakers also fielded questions from the audience on these subjects. “Everyone had questions,” Barnes said. “We had everyone fill out a comment form and leave any outstanding questions or issues on them.” Once the comment forms are translated, Barnes will have a better perspective on what’s on the mind of the majority of the entrepreneurs who attended the conference. “I’m going to find what organization the people wanted to speak to most, and make that organization the focus of the next meeting,” she said. The meeting also provided an important opportunity to a group of people who had been overlooked in the past, Barnes said. Barnes’ team from the 354th, the economy and commerce team, operates the Baghdad Business Center at the Iraqi Forum, which is the name of the convention center. The business center helps Iraqi professionals to network and to find business opportunities in Baghdad. However, most of the people who come into the business center are men over the age of 40, she said. “I knew there had to be younger entrepreneurs out there,” Barnes said. “If they don’t already own their own business, perhaps they want to.” The professionals who attended the meeting represented several industries, including construction, trade, technology, telecommunications and transportation. By helping these businessmen and women, the civil affairs soldiers are helping them to stimulate the Iraqi economy, Barnes said. “Getting these businesses up and running will create economic development,” she said. “We’ll get money flowing through Baghdad, and the city will grow.” Once larger companies begin to pour money into businesses here, inflation will go down, and Baghdad will be able to stand on its own feet again, she said. Between the business center and the meetings, said Barnes, a Boston native, she feels that she has a hand in the reconstruction of Iraq. “We are a part of history,” she said. “We’re helping to rebuild Baghdad. To be part of that is a great feeling.”

To: carranza2 who wrote (9405)	9/25/2003 6:29:17 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793731

Walter is a Reagan appointee, so I suppose that's reason enough to demonize him, right? C2, C2, C2. Don't you realize you are having a dispute with an Academic? Their rule is, "when you can't defeat the facts or the argument, attack the character of the opponent." You obviously are not "nuanced" enough to understand the technique.

To: carranza2 who wrote (9405)	9/25/2003 7:30:12 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793731

Relax, c2. You're arguing against arguments I didn't make. I'm not demonizing the poor judge. I don't doubt he went to Iraq; just that the conclusions he returns with could have been arrived at without going. I also wish to note that where there are things besides his assertions that he talked with thus and so, which is fine and I don't doubt he did, those other assertions are things he could not know. Such as the quote Gina offered. There are others. Those are statements handed to him by someone in authority in Iraq. That, in and of itself, doesn't make those statements wrong. I have no way of knowing; you have no way of knowing. But they don't grow from the judge's experience.