Iraq fuel crisis adds to chaos(electricity shortages add to problem)

[maddezmom]

Baghdad is in the grip of the most serious fuel crisis since the war, forcing drivers to spend more than a day queuing for petrol and underlining the government's struggle to maintain even basic services weeks ahead of elections.
In the past two weeks queues often hundreds of cars long have stretched for miles, and disputes between drivers and police have turned violent. In one incident last week at a petrol station in Yarmouk, an affluent area of western Baghdad, a police major was shot dead by a man in the queue.

Government officials have blamed attacks by insurgents for a sharp fuel shortage in a country that has the world's second largest supply of oil.

But petrol station managers say the problems stem more from electricity shortages that prevent pumps from working, higher demand from Iraqis who rely on petrol not just for their cars but to run generators for their homes, and from the dramatic increase in the number of cars on the road since the war last year. A new night-time curfew in Baghdad has also meant petrol stations no longer stay open late.
more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1372314,00.html

[KingChicken]

1. U.S. just doesen't get it....

How can anyone live without electricity or basic transportation let alone rebuild? We've not only made no progress, we've made the situation many times worse....

[maddezmom]

2. Sabotage suspected in Iraq blackout

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1264402.htm

~snip~
But Natsios, fielding pointed questions from Arabic-speaking journalists about reconstruction, defended more visible U.S. work, which some Iraqis say is taking far too long. He said it takes months to build power plants, whose generators need to be built from scratch.


He spoke in the middle of a power outage that cut electricity to a large swath of the country. Baghdad went dark, though power in the Green Zone is supplied by generators and was not cut.

~snip~
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=3&u=/ap/20041213/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_aid

[LynnTheDem]

3. Only took Hussein 3 mths after 1991 Gulf War to restore electricity

2 years later, the world's "greatest superpower" still hasn't been able to reach pre-invasion levels.

Maybe this explains why the Iraqis are so damn ungrateful to us, the wicked wretches! :eyes:

[jmcgowanjm]

4. I counted 3 lights behind FoxBaghdadBroadcast 121204

No mention was made of Baghdad Blackout

Even if the US armors all its trucks and Hummvees, it can't
get past the bombs and rockets of the Iraqi forces. US bases
all over Iraq are effectively under siege, unable to get water,
fuel, or ammunition to operate. Airlifting the cargo that should
be transported by land is obviously a desperate measure
and means that US forces can no longer mount
offensive operations: Airlift can never supply them with
enough fuel or ammunition, which were tight even when
the ground supply was operating at its top
capacity.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58252-2004Dec11?language=printer

Again, if I didn't have AC for over a year (2hrs/day
wouldn't count) & an area less than a mile away
was lit like an Xmas tree (say, the GreenZone), Someone
would pay.