"We no longer need television documentaries about the Stone Age. We are actually living in it.

[NNN0LHI]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=ILKAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Aug 4, 8:37 PM EDT

Iraqi Power Grid Nearing Collapse

By STEVEN R. HURST
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraq's power grid is on the brink of collapse because of insurgent sabotage, rising demand, fuel shortages and provinces that are unplugging local power stations from the national grid, officials said Saturday.

Electricity Ministry spokesman Aziz al-Shimari said power generation nationally is only meeting half the demand, and there had been four nationwide blackouts over the past two days. The shortages across the country are the worst since the summer of 2003, shortly after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, he said.

Power supplies in Baghdad have been sporadic all summer and now are down to just a few hours a day, if that. The water supply in the capital has also been severely curtailed by power blackouts and cuts that have affected pumping and filtration stations.

Karbala province south of Baghdad has been without power for three days, causing water mains to go dry in the provincial capital, the Shiite holy city of Karbala.

"We no longer need television documentaries about the Stone Age. We are actually living in it. We are in constant danger because of the filthy water and rotten food we are having," said Hazim Obeid, who sells clothing at a stall in the Karbala market.

[Kagemusha]

1. Wanna know what I learned about this that was shocking to me?

...That Iraqis once had documentaries about the Stone Age.

Who would've thought Iraq was once a reasonably civilized nation? And we're not even done with it yet.

[Gloria]

2. Bushco--destructive BASTARDS! They've DESTROYED a country...

for NOTHING. Try to get your mind about that, America. Of course, no one will speak in those terms...

[Lifelong Protester]

3. I had to open this just for the title.

And I am not surprised. How can this regime (ours, not theirs) really and truly believe they have done "the right thing" in trying to bring 'Democracy' to the Iraqis? All we've given them is a ticket into the hell and horror they (and our troops over there) are now living through. Then what? We declare "Victory" and leave them in that state?
I agree Gloria (poster above) we have destroyed them and for what?

edited to add: So that folks over here can tool around in Hummers and keep on sopping up all that oil paid for in blood? (Sorry, this is just one of my rant subjects)

[WinkyDink]

6. For what? For Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, et al., to get even richer and more powerful.

Period.

And THAT has been most successful.

[Lifelong Protester]

7. yes, yes, I know that...

I didn't want to state the obvious... Operation Iraqi Liberation....

[L. Coyote]

4. You are insulting the Stone Age. I take offense. I'm from the Stone Age.

Seriously, the Stone Age, or the Neolithic, was followed almost universally by the Age of Warfare. It is our paradigms about the Neolithic that are flawed. I wish we were back in the Neolithic frequently!

[KoKo]

5. And we brought them FREEDOM...that's more important than Water & Electricity

They should fall down and thank us for what we have done to them. They should be grateful for their FREEDOMS.

......it goes beyond depressing...it goes to crimes against humanity.

[nealmhughes]

8. I wish Ed Said were alive to tell the world about BushCo's "orientalism" present in the state of

Iraqi infrastructure. It is almost as if "they are "only" Arabs, and therefore do not need electricity." I am honestly surprised that no one has offered up the fact that "they lived there for 5000 years before they had electricity" -- of course they did, in thousands at the most, not millions, and with a functioning daily market so that food could be prepared for immediate consumption and houses were also designed for maximum air flow, rather than for A/C.

Do we actually want people to be drawing water from the Tigris or Euphrates and then filtering and boiling it just to brush their teeth or to bathe? Evidently.

Could the people of Kansas City expect to draw water from the Missouri and not have ice for their food or power for so much as a fan in a Missouri summer?

But they are "just" Arabs, can't they drink and bathe in champagne?

:sarcasm:

[unhappycamper]

9. We invade and occupy their country.

We cannot protect them.

We cannot feed them.

We cannot give them electricity.

And we can't leave because. . . . Um, someone help me out here. Why can't we leave?