Soldiers help Iraqis with frustrating process of buying gas

[MADem]

Right before Iran fell, the price of gas skyrocketed. Kerosene was impossible to obtain. The gas lines went on forever. This is very similar:

BAGHDAD — The price of gasoline in this oil-rich nation’s capital isn’t only measured in dinars. It is also measured in hours.

Throw in a little corruption, inefficiency and insufficient infrastructure, and that price per liter skyrockets for the average Iraqi.

At the gas station on southern Baghdad’s al Daura road, for example, a tank of gas that costs the equivalent of a handful of dollars involves lines that can produce waits of more than 20 hours.

And it’s not just the Iraqis who are involved in this day-to-day struggle. Nearly every daylight patrol of Company B of the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment from Fort Hood, Texas, involves the soldiers inserting themselves in the fight with black marketers, gas station operators, security and even Iraqi police. ...
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=26475

[no_to_war_economy]

1. the cost of fuel rose 333% in one month

http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000165.php


“Look at what has become of Baghdad Dahr,” he tells me as the traffic finally begins to inch forward again, “All of us are suffering now. This is not a life.”