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Largest Iraqi dam on verge of collapse, say U.S. officials

Posted at 10:11 AM on 30 Oct 2007

The largest dam in Iraq "is judged to have an unacceptable annual failure probability," according to assessments by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In other words, the "most dangerous dam in the world" could potentially collapse in the near future, sending a trillion-gallon wave of water into the cities of Mosul and Baghdad and possibly killing hundreds of thousands of people. At the same time, Iraqi officials and a U.S. oversight agency say that a U.S. project to help temporarily gird the dam has been marred by incompetence and mismanagement. Microcosm, anyone?

source: The Washington Post

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Comments: (3 comments)

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Dam(n)s

Any environmentalist worth his or her weight should realize that dam(n)s are very ecologically destructive. While I certainly don't wish any more harm on the Iraqis considering the considerable amount already caused by the U.S., to paraphrase the old Chiffon Margarine commercial, it's not nice to mess with nature. And as the bumper sticker says, nature bats last.

by Wolverine at 2:03 PM on 30 Oct 2007

Where's Brownie when you need him?

Maybe ol' Brown will go sort things out if the dam breaks.

Victual Reality

by Tom Philpott at 2:08 PM on 30 Oct 2007

power of prayer

is pat robertson behind this?

is the grand ayatolla behind this?

will god resolve this conflict sooner rather than later?

cleanse the streets of bagdad, but of what?

and who will win?

not so clear who benefits from the next flood

but very clear who will suffer

by wackatalpidae at 4:00 PM on 30 Oct 2007

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