Baghdad: No electricity 20 hours/day.

[rainbow4321]

From http://www.azzaman.com/english/ (link was too long)


http://tinyurl.com/yapyno

There is no electricity in Baghdad and the city of nearly 6 million people spends its nights in total darkness.

The Ministry of Electricity says the total outage is the result of sabotage in which power lines feeding Baghdad were knocked out.

Nearly four years after the U.S. invasion, the country still has less electricity than under the former leader Saddam Hussein who was executed last month.

A source at the ministry said two high-voltage power lines feeding Baghdad were sabotaged. He said technicians were working to have them repaired. But even under normal circumstances the national grid is off for nearly 20 hours a day in Baghdad.

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http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/155

Baghdad Suffered Total Power Outage During Bush Speech.

American troops may not only be responsible for actually carrying out the Bush "surge" plan. As reported in an AP story today, "Soldiers found themselves explaining the new U.S. strategy to Iraqis, many of whom said they hadn't seen Bush's speech on television because they had no electricity."

Of course, they didn't miss much of interest because nowhere in Bush's 20 minute rambling did he even mention words like electricity, power, energy, or restore.

It is not only Baghdad that is plunged into darkness," Azzaman added. "The national grid is so rickety that no province in the country now enjoys non-interrupted" power. Even under regular conditions, Baghdad only receives about 4 hours of electricity each day.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich recently noted that "after the first Gulf War, Iraqis reestablished electricity within three months, despite sanctions. Four years into the US occupation there is no water, nor reliable electricity in Baghdad." Azzaman also pointed out that the nation had more electricity under Saddam than the current regime.

[Spazito]

1. That would be all of Baghdad EXCEPT for the Green Zone

I suspect.

[leftchick]

3. you suspect rightly

the Green Zone has its own power 24/7. Can you imagine being an Iraqi and seeing the lights glowing at night out of the GZ? I know how it would piss me off.

[bluerum]

2. Yeah. But they voted for it.

Extreme sarcasm.
:sarcasm: :banghead: :sarcasm: :banghead: :sarcasm:

[SoCalDem]

4. yep we all saw the purple fingers

Too bad they inked the wrong finger :sarcasm:

[TahitiNut]

5. The less oil they use, the more for the oil companies.

Oil-fired power generation, I assume. :shrug:

[partylessinOhio]

6. Is this what they meant when they said "bombing them back to the stone age?"

:shrug:

[MADem]

7. You'd think they'd have full-bore generators in the GZ by now, permanent ones

Like most permanent bases have....because that is what we are dealing with here, a permanent base.

I'll bet it's loud as hell when the electricity goes out. Everyone starting up their little Honda.....what a PITA....shades of the fall of Iran....!

[SanCristobal]

8. This isn't entirely our fault, Iraq never had enough power.

Their electrical grid is ancient and the Hussein regime never updated it. The country never produced enough electricity, under Saddam Baghdad had power only because he deprived most of the rest of the nation of it.

During the war the Iraqi military used power surges to warn people about air raids, something which further damaged the grid. This problem was exacerbated when looters stripped miles of copper wire to sell on the black market immediately after the invasion ended. Six months after the war began Iraq was producing more power then it did pre-invasion, I have no clue if that remains the case though.

[bluerum]

9. Yeah - my point. It is the Iraqi's fault. Damn ingrates.

More extreme sarcasm.
:banghead: :sarcasm: :banghead: :sarcasm: :banghead:

[magellan]

10. It certainly had more than 4 hours a day average

And that doesn't even touch on the water situation. Read Baghdad Burning, this is nothing new. It's been bad since the invasion/occupation and must be considered one of the contributing factors to the insurgency.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

11. so, why is Halliburton getting all that loot? Does anyone know what the pricey sole contractor does?

Without furnishing basic services usually provided by ANY construction
company, acting as an in-country defense contractor, does anyone know what
Halliburton makes?

besides obscene profits???