For Immediate Release
March 25, 2004

Global Message

In 100 days, a sovereign Iraqi government will come into being. The Coalition Provisional Authority will dissolve and the sovereignty that the Coalition once held in trust for the Iraqi people will rest solely in Iraqi hands.

Iraq had been reduced to a shell by almost four decades of relentless greed and cruelty by its leaders. Instead of investing in Iraq's infrastructure, Saddam Hussein's regime squandered and stole the nation's wealth.

When liberation came, water, electricity, sewage, schools and much more were a shambles. Much remains to be done, but almost a year after liberation much has been accomplished.

Today, some improvements in Iraq include:

• Iraq has more electrical power than it had before liberation and is more evenly distributed across the country.

• More than 2,500 schools have been rehabilitated.

• More than 3 million Iraqi children under five have been vaccinated against polio and other diseases.

• Health care spending has been increased by more than 30 times.

• More than one million Iraqis enjoy telephone service and that number grows by 15,000 per week.

• Iraq is once again a member of the international community, and is routinely joining sister states in the Arab League, the United Nations, the World Bank and IMF.

• Iraq is on a path to full democracy in a united state at peace with its neighbors.