Electricity Levels In Baghdad At Lowest Level Since U.S. Invasion
Electricity Levels In Baghdad At Lowest Level Since U.S. Invasion
In Sept. 2003, President Bush promised that he would help Iraqis “restore basic services, such as electricity and water, and to build new schools, roads, and medical clinics. This effort is essential to the stability of those nations, and therefore, to our own security.”
But three years later, electricity levels in Baghdad are at an all-time low. Residents of Baghdad are receiving just 2.4 hours of electricity this month, compared to an average of 16-24 hours of electricity before the U.S. invasion. The lowest level prior to this month was 3.9 hours/day.
According to our chart — using data compiled by The Brookings Institution — electricity levels have been steadily going down in the past two years (data for parts of 2003-2004 were unavailable) and are now at their lowest point since the U.S. invasion:
Doesn’t look like “so many lights [are] shining brightly” right now.
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115 Responses to “Electricity Levels In Baghdad At Lowest Level Since U.S. Invasion”
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Iraq has spun out of control. BushCo can’t “spin” it back to their favor.
Not only are Iraqi’s without power, Americans are dying at a hellatious rate.
Can you say quagmire? I knew you could.
Can you say impeachment? Not with ReichWingNuts in control of Congress.
October 18th, 2006 at 12:40 pmWell, Iraqis don’t need that much electricity, do they? I mean, the weather is pretty nice over there, so they can sit outdoors.
October 18th, 2006 at 12:40 pmPeople please. Give it at least another 6 months to get better. The whole insfrastructure was destroyed and needs to be rebuilt. It’s not like a blackout in your community and needs to be restored because of a hurricane.
October 18th, 2006 at 12:40 pmGeorge H.W. Bush’s “thousand points of light” have been downgraded by one dim-bulb, his son, George W. Bush.
-GSD
October 18th, 2006 at 12:44 pmExley
And, you don’t really need a heart or brain, do you, since you’re obviously not using either? I mean you can drool over Bush without them, can’t you?
October 18th, 2006 at 12:44 pmIsn’t Iraqs infrastructure being managed by Bechtel, the company responsible for the boondoggle known as “The Big Dig” in Boston?
October 18th, 2006 at 12:44 pmAs I said before
October 18th, 2006 at 12:50 pm“Prime Minister Maliki is the leader of a government chosen by the Iraqi people through free and fair elections. He has a vision and a strategy to reduce violence and to rebuild his country. He has laid out a comprehensive plan for the future of his free nation. Iraq’s leaders recognize their challenges, and they have identified their priorities. Electricity isn’t one of them.
Getting militias up and running as efficiently as possible has to be Mr Liki’s first and most important freedom agenda item.
Now exley, see that’s a good point. Kinda like my Momma said about the poor underprivileged in New Orleans, they’re probably better off anyway.
October 18th, 2006 at 12:52 pmHow will W and the BA spin this new setback? That they’re fighting global warming?
Also, the Republican right-wingers are getting really desperate with their monumnetal defeat in the midterms looimng. Check out the new “slogans” http://polibuzz.blogspot.com/ 2006/ 10/ republican-desperation.html that some right wingers are cooking up.
October 18th, 2006 at 12:53 pmWell that explains the blackout of media coverage. They can’t get juice to run their cameras and show us all that goodness Bush was talking about last Spring.
Who failed on that no-bid contract to restore electricity? Another Caryle owned contractor?
October 18th, 2006 at 12:53 pmBush is causing Iraq to slide backwards into the Stone Age > they practically already resemble Haitians in severe poverty, but with 100 times more violence and mayhem! Bush must resign, or be impeached, for war crimes!
October 18th, 2006 at 12:53 pmPLC, I’m 99% sure that was not the real Exley. For one thing, the name is not capitalized.
October 18th, 2006 at 12:55 pmhelluva job bushwhack. it’s looking good.
October 18th, 2006 at 12:56 pm4 GSD
Excellent - I thought of the “thousand points of light” but didn’t think of a way to use it. I like yours!
October 18th, 2006 at 12:56 pmOxillini
I didn’t catch the lack of capitalization. You may be right and, if so, I apologize to the real “Exley” but the comment stands for the fake “exley”.
October 18th, 2006 at 12:58 pmGive it at least another 6 months to get better.
Six months? How many times have we heard that one? How long have we been occupying Iraq now - three years? That’s a lot of spoiled milk for the little Iraqi war orphans.
October 18th, 2006 at 1:05 pm#2,
Well, Iraqis don’t need that much electricity, do they? I mean, the weather is pretty nice over there, so they can sit outdoors.
Or they can just burn the midnight oil, right?
October 18th, 2006 at 1:07 pmMaybe Darth Cheney would like to go there and light a candle or operate a hand pump - since he thinks things are remarkably well.
October 18th, 2006 at 1:08 pmI heard that the French are sending 30,000 hamsters and 15,000 wheels to Iraq to help generate more electricity. This will also help the environment with the global warming issue, as hamsters give off very low levels of Co2 and methane gas.
October 18th, 2006 at 1:08 pm#4 GSD
October 18th, 2006 at 1:09 pmI am applauding your wit.
PLC, hey it’s no skin off my back. I just didn’t want you to run across Exley later and bring up a comment he probably never made.
It will be interesting to see if anyone even tries to spin this. What possible angle makes this look like progress.
October 18th, 2006 at 1:11 pm#19 - That’s a hell of an idea!
October 18th, 2006 at 1:14 pmThey can grind up the dead bodies for hamster food.
More global warming will allow them to fry eggs on the sidewalk. They won’t need electricity. See? Two problems solved! More global warming! More global warming!
October 18th, 2006 at 1:18 pmPeople please. Give it at least another 6 months to get bettThe whole insfrastructure was destroyed and needs to be rebuilt. It’s not like a blackout in your community and needs to be restored because of a hurricane.
Comment by RayFromGA — October 18, 2006 @ 12:40 pm
That would be one Friedman for things to get better.
And, by the way, just who was it who destroyed the infrastructure? That wouldn’t be us, would it?
I find the hurricane reference somewhat comical in light of Katrina. Right wingers just can’t see the irony in what they write.
October 18th, 2006 at 1:21 pmIt was so much better under Saddam. What we should do is just reverse everything: put Saddam back in power and let Iraq live in peace and with 24/7 electricity.
October 18th, 2006 at 1:23 pmI want to amend my last comment:
Stuff happens!
October 18th, 2006 at 1:26 pmBush staged an illegal and criminal invasion and occupation of Iraq and overthrew a brutal dictatorship, and yet, in his own inimitable way, managed to make things much worse for the average Iraqi… You are one heck of a war criminal Mister Bush. You may be able to pardon yourself for your many domestic crimes (treason, lies, warrantless spying, violation of your oath of office to uphold our Constitution), but even if you flee to the pampas in Paraguay, you will not be able to escape prosecution for your war crimes against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.
October 18th, 2006 at 1:28 pmCheers.
# 25, now thats a spot on assessment of the current situation! We should have let Hitler off the hook too, as he had a great infrastructure and all of Eastern Europe had lights!
October 18th, 2006 at 1:32 pmMr. Sayre
October 18th, 2006 at 1:32 pmNow that there Hague place, that’s not in South America, is it?
Cause, if it is, my Daddy’ll have to find another retirement community for Laura, the dog and me to saunter off to.
Doesn’t Manhattan have more than 2.4 hours of electricity a day?
October 18th, 2006 at 1:43 pmPLEASE FIX THE DAMN POST!
Amanda;
You wrote they’re getting “2.4 hours of electricity this month”. It SHOULD read “2.4 hours of electricity a day, this month”.
Otherwise, it’s wicked confusing.
October 18th, 2006 at 2:03 pmbut in the words of our illustrious Veep it’s going “incredibly well” - what a total disconnect? No electricity = incredibly well???? Didn’t we promise to rebuild this country after bombing it to smithereens??
October 18th, 2006 at 2:04 pmU.S. forces were back patrolling the streets of the predominantly Shiite city of Balad on Tuesday after five days of sectarian slaughter killed 95 people, violence that surged out of control despite the efforts of Iraq’s best-trained soldiers.
Iraq’s 4th Army took command of the region north of Baghdad a month ago, but had been unable to stem recent attacks in Balad, where the slayings of 17 Shiite Muslim workers Friday set off revenge killings by Shiites.
This is all the liburl media’s fault for reporting it.
October 18th, 2006 at 2:12 pmAmanda conveniently ignores the fact that Saddam was robbing the rest of the country of electricity to power his palaces and the citizens in Baghdad to keep them from rising up against him. Now the electricity is being distributed throughout the country, not just Baghdad as it was under Saddam. Average megawatts generated nationwide is at or has exceeded average prewar levels since 2004. Average hours of electricity nationwide was as little as 4 hours per day. Now with the USACOE, supported by US and Japananese companies employing local contractors, helping with the reconstruction of the electrical power infrastructure the average hours of electricity nationwide has more than doubled!
We don’t know who created the chart, but whoever did is clearly lazy. The Brookings data is as of October 4, 2006. Not even a week into October and Iraq has already generated and average of 84,000 MWH. September’s average MWH generation exceeded pre-war levels. Maybe you should wait until October is over before charting October’s average.
210 electrical projects have been planned for surrounding Baghdad area at a cost of about $750 million. 85 of those have been completed. As more of those projects come online electrical power generation will increase and become more reliable.
In addition, construction was just completed last month on the Washash Substation, part a $20 million project that will provide more reliable power to the Kadhamiyah district. Check the Iraq Reconstruction Reports and the Iraq Weekly Reports for the details and the facts. Don’t rely on some idiot at TP telling you only a portion of the story that fits with the liberal agenda…disparaging the efforts of the new Iraq government to rebuild their country.
October 18th, 2006 at 2:15 pmSmithereens are quite hard to glue back together. You should try underwater bb stacking. Now there’s something that is really hard to master.
All you folks forget, with your take out, drive thru, short term memory lifestyles that these things take time. It takes many more years than we have invested as of yet to rebuild a country or foster a fledgling Republic.
So, get off you pulpit, give Iraq time to acheive a form of government you folks take for granted every day. I mean, you sit there and criticize from your computer without even the remotest chance that you will be bombed or that McDonalds will not have your kids happy meal. You all make me sick with your got to have it now or it’s not worth it attitudes.
October 18th, 2006 at 2:21 pm#12 Oxillini…You can now be 100% sure that was not the real Exley. I appreciate that you recognized that even though we may disagree on most matters political I would never write anything that thoughtless and callous. And I appreciate you pointing out to others that it wasn’t me.
#15, PLC, no apologies necessary. If someone hijacks a name and posts something under that name, it is perfectly understandable one would think it was that person.
This is not the first time that has happened to me and to others. Isn’t there some way TP can prevent duplicate usernames????
October 18th, 2006 at 2:28 pmHippie with a pistol,
You are dangerous in here with the TRUTH. These libs are gonna jump all over you because you spread the truth. They cant handle it.
October#’s before October is done. LOL
Can you say BUSTED!!!!
October 18th, 2006 at 2:29 pmExley
Actually, an apology IS necessary, for my own moral center, but I appreciate your sentiment.
October 18th, 2006 at 2:34 pmNo problem Exley. As you said, in general we don’t agree politically but name-jacking is just chidlish. I would imagine TP could regulate that more tightly, but would it require registration?
October 18th, 2006 at 2:35 pmWhat are you complaining about, It’s like being in Manhattan.
October 18th, 2006 at 2:35 pmhey Hippie, notice how these libs haven’t had an educated response in 21 minutes after you posted the Truth? Nice one!
October 18th, 2006 at 2:38 pmIt’s amazing isn’t it haywood!!
October 18th, 2006 at 2:41 pm…how much electricity does one really need…
…to run a battery and shock some genitalia?
October 18th, 2006 at 2:43 pmAgainst a goal of 6,000 that was supposed to have been reached over 2 years ago, they’re doin a heckuva job~!
October 18th, 2006 at 2:43 pmC’mon, people. Give Bush a break. We don’t want to change horses mid-Apocalypse.
October 18th, 2006 at 2:46 pm#38, 39…Thank you, gentlemen (I assume, for whatever reason, you are both gentlemen)….
October 18th, 2006 at 2:55 pmHippie with a pistol #34
Do the world a favor…
…eat your gun…
October 18th, 2006 at 3:12 pmWhy isn’t there more about HR6166? Bush just signed into law the right for him to determine if the people of this blog are enemy combatents and would be thrown into prison with no due process “habius Corpus†was just signed away. What the hell? Is everybody asleep?
October 18th, 2006 at 3:13 pmThey’re only getting 2.4 hours of electricity per month because they’re conservitating inurgy.
October 18th, 2006 at 3:15 pmhippie, did you read the Brookings Institute report? The nationwide amount of electricity generated did pass prewar levels in 2004, then fell below for another 7 months. The peak number reported was 4707 Megawatts, a 18% increase over prewar levels. Last month, the figure was 1% above prewar levels in terms of nationwide production. Where did the other 17% gained go? You requested that we check the Iraq Weekly Reports for the facts. That’s ironic, because, since December 2005, the Brookings Institute has used those reports as the data source for this graph. The October estimate, then, comes from that source. Clearly 3500 megawatts is an estimate, not a direct measurement.
October 18th, 2006 at 3:22 pm#34 - Hippie with a pistol,
October 18th, 2006 at 3:31 pm84,000 MKH per day is not enough. The Iraqis say that the minimum need is about 160,000 MWH per day and the actual production was 230,000 MWH per day before the 1991 war. In addition, the power is being delivered to United States facilities 24/7 - the rest of the country is left with the crumbs, hence the rolling blackouts. In Baghdad, there are businesses that provide power to individual homes and businesses that can pay using private generators.
I am a bit late in this response, I had to research it out from scratch and wanted to include at least one refer back.
oxillini #52
…just ask Hippie if…
…the conditions in Baghdad (or Iraq in general)…
…are good enough for he/she and his/her family to live in?
October 18th, 2006 at 3:32 pmHippie? Hello, Hippie? Where are you?
October 18th, 2006 at 3:37 pmYour BS is busted, come on back down for another smacking.
Why do hippies with guns hate doing basic research?
First MKH s/b MWH - sorry folks,
October 18th, 2006 at 3:40 pm#56 s/b electricity generation not production. Idiot.
October 18th, 2006 at 3:48 pm#57 - Fa Kin Su Pa,
October 18th, 2006 at 3:53 pmWhen I leave this existance, I will inform my Power Engineering prof (If we end up in the same place.).
facts have a liberal bias, so the hippie with a water pistol won’t use them.
October 18th, 2006 at 3:54 pmIt has now been 32 minutes since the much vaunted Truth has been looked into. Don’t you hate it when libs attack the Truth for no being True? How positively indecent.
October 18th, 2006 at 4:02 pmIsn’t this how you win hearts and minds - by placing a society in the dark so that they can better reflect on their new won freedom?
October 18th, 2006 at 4:08 pmYou have to wonder at the decision to divert much of the power supply away from the most populous city in Iraq (and the Capital) to other parts of the country. No doubt the decision was made by the same geniuses who prioritized the privatization of Iraq’s oil industry, rewrote the traffic code and instituted the flat tax–all in the midst of the rising insurgency. You’d think, given the U.S. and Iraqi government’s declaration that the pacification of Baghdad is a “top priority,” that improving the general quality of life there might just contribute to the pacification process. Yet apparently no attempt whatever has been made to do so, as indicated by the decline in the availability of electricity in Baghdad–outside the heavily fortified “Green Zone,” that is.
October 18th, 2006 at 4:37 pmGee, I thought for a while, that I had killed this thread. Like the Unpatriot Act signed by W yesterday, the plight of the average Iraqi must be considered as well as our own. W’s vendetta against one man (Saddam) is a crime, an injustice and a sin all rolled into one neat little package. At least he enjoys warm climes, Hell and Texas are a bit warmer than Connecticut.
October 18th, 2006 at 4:54 pmWe have destroyed their country and infrastructure, their economy, killed tens of thousands of men women and children, increased the level of terrorism within the country’s borders, leave them a civil war and now we tell them to “fix it”. This is just a sample of the jingoistic, asanine foreign policy boondoggle that the idiot in the White House has visited upon both the Iraqi people and the citizens of the United States.
October 18th, 2006 at 5:10 pm[…] Isn’t it about time someone points out that they’re not even trying anymore? […]
October 18th, 2006 at 5:18 pmHOT AND GRUMPY IN BAGHDAD
.
Bashir, a young man, is getting a drink from the luke cool fridge in his family’s Baghdad apartment. He mutters, “It’s just too blasted hot to go out setting up IEDs today.â€
(the TV and the lights blink and die, the whirr and gurgle of the air conditioner slowly ceases and we hear a door slam, then silence, followed by an explosion in the distance)
October 18th, 2006 at 7:02 pmHippie with a pistol has truthiness on his side, I’ll give him that…Let me give it a try:
Hippie conveniently ignores the fact the rest of the country was robbing Sadaam of electricity to power their farms and businesses to keep him from rising up against them. Now the electricity is being distributed in Baghdad, not just in the rest of the country as it was under Saddam. Average megawatts generated nationwide is at or below average prewar levels since 1138.
Average hours of electricity nationwide was as little as 4 hours per day before the US invasion and occupation. Now with the WRSUCB, supported by US and Japananese companies employing foreign contractors, helping with the blowing up and reconstruction of the electrical power infrastructure the average hours of electricity nationwide is now 6785 per day!
We don’t know who created the chart, but whoever did is clearly a workaholic. The Brookings data is as of October 4, 1996. Not even a week into 2006 and Iraq has already generated and average of 384,000 DMZ. September’s average DMZ generation exceeded post-war levels. Maybe you should wait until May is past before scheduling June.
5789 electrical projects have been planned for surrounding Baghdad area at a cost of about $750 gazillion. 3 of those have been completed, but since blown up. As more of those projects get completed and blown up electrical power generation will decrease and become less reliable.
In addition, construction was just completed last month on the Abu Ghraib phase 2 prison complex, part of a $20 bazillion project that will provide more reliable torture chambers to the Kissmyass district. Check whitehouse.gov and the TV Guide for the details and the facts. Don’t rely on some idiot on the radio telling you only a portion of the story that fits with the conservative agenda…disparaging the efforts of the new Iraq tyrants to blow the shit out of their country, and kill their enemies.
Wow, truthiness is fun…
October 18th, 2006 at 7:37 pm#67 - Rusty Austin,
October 18th, 2006 at 8:13 pmYor numbers seem a bit conservative, but, would you be willing to serve as my next graduate counseler. My last failed to leave a phone contact. He was 93 when he stopped answering.
[…] Would the last person out of Iraq please turn out the lights. Oh, doesn’t matter…. […]
October 18th, 2006 at 9:02 pmRay - three years is long enough for BushCo to reconstruct a country he chose to destroy for personal ego. What about our men and women who are dying should they give it another six months? If you feel so strongly I am sure the military could use your help. Sign up !
Angry? You better believe it ! Go visit a VA hospital and talk to those who gave their bodies for BushCo.
October 18th, 2006 at 9:50 pmI was stationed at the Haditha Dam in Iraq, a hydroelectric powerplant. It supplied power to 33% of Iraq.
The local town of Haditha was never without power when we were there and I imagine this power survey is nothing but a bunch of hocus pocus.
Also, I do go the VA regularly and just by your comments, I can tell you are ignorant and have never visited a VA yourself. This is because the opposite of what you say is true.
For some reason you just don’t get that islamic extremists want to kill us. Bush is trying to fight them and you can only undermine him. Grow up, get educated, and start realizing the true danger of islamic extremists. Otherwise, you will aid in the destruction of our way of life.
October 18th, 2006 at 10:32 pmFor some reason you just don’t get that islamic extremists want to kill us. - josh
what are we doing buying oil from islamic extremists who want to kill us? why bush even likes to kiss and hold hands of the very saudi royals who either funded terrorism and/or support an extreme brand of the religion.
for the millionth time, it wasn’t iraqis who perpetuated 9/11. the roots of that attack grew out of saudi arabia and pakistan.
October 19th, 2006 at 12:52 am#71 - Josh,
October 19th, 2006 at 1:07 amYou’ve got to be kidding me. The Haditha Dam supplies only about 660 MW of power. That’s about 7% of requirements. Total hydroelectric faciliies could provide about 22% of requirements in Iraq if the distribution system was not in shambles.
TP libs, your display of ignoramce is unbelievable. You have know idea what the hell you’re talking about. That wiki site is the last place you should be looking for information on Iraq reconstruction. Get informed here:
http://www.grd.usace.army.mil/ news/ releases/ recon090606.html
October 19th, 2006 at 1:52 am#74 - Hippie with a pistol,
October 19th, 2006 at 2:10 amThere is a nuance of differance between fantasy and reality.
In #75, fantasy link should be: http://www.grd.usace.army.mil/ news/ releases/ recon090606.html
October 19th, 2006 at 2:27 amit’s all part of the plan.
October 19th, 2006 at 2:59 amHmmm… I just heard Rumsfeld’s speech at maxwell-gunter air base, october 18th.
He talked glowingly about progress in Iraq, mentioning something about every home that gets electricity back for proof.
Wish I could find the transcript…
October 19th, 2006 at 3:18 amThe insurgence really should get all the credit for this, they’ve been working overtime to turn Iraq into a complete hell-hole.
Victory to the Insurgence!
October 19th, 2006 at 5:23 amMake Iraq unliveable!
GEORGE W., DICK C., C ROVE, (The Reel Axis of Evil)… THESE ARE 3 DANGEROUS PEOPLE….
October 19th, 2006 at 6:32 amWhat do you expect? It takes time and money to build landing strips and barracks for their new bases. Those things come, after you’ve invaded a country and destroyed the infrastructure.
October 19th, 2006 at 7:06 amAnother reason why the US forces are dearly loved there.
Very interesting graph. How does it compare with the electricity levels in Baghdad before the war? Does anyone have a graph starting from, say, January 2003? Thanks!
October 19th, 2006 at 8:52 amYogesh.
Dear #71-
If we’re fighting islamic terrorists who want to kill us, they’re really pissed off now.
We’ve invaded two mulsim countries in the past 5 years and killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians along with a few thousand so-called terrorists. If your family had been blown to bloody shreds sitting in their homes, what would you like to do to the people who did it.
You and the neo-con rat-pack (Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity, Bushco, etc) can keep meditating and chanting “9/11, 9/11″ to justify every rotten, filthy thing we’ve done for 5 years, but the nightmarish math doesn’t add up.
The question needs to be this: How many people are we, as a Judeo-Christian country, willing to annihilate, maim and force to live in Stone Age conditions (worse than what they were in before) to get even for 3,000 souls lost in a single attack?
In the time that we’ve dumped thousands and thousands of lives and billions of dollars since 2001, over 200,000 Americans have been killed on our highways. I don’t hear about that on Republican Talk Radio, Fox News or from the White House.
If the President is charged with the responsibility of “keeping us safe,” why isn’t he doing more for national highway safety? Maybe an airstike on my local Department of Transporation salt storage shack or motor pool would send a message that we need to stop them in the county garages so we won’t have to fight them on the freeways.
It’s the same thing to me. And about as nonsensical.
October 19th, 2006 at 10:27 amHippie with a pistol #74 sited an army national guard news release site…
…he/she is very well schooled in the propaganda of the “controllers”…
…pay close attention to him/her…
…and you will have NO DOUBT as to what to believe…
…OR NOT…
…as Yogi Berra wisely opined, “when you come to a fork in the road…
… take it”…
…Hippie will show you that fork…
October 19th, 2006 at 10:36 amWalt, Kirk Semple has never reported one story on reconstruction of electrical power facilities in Iraq. His reporting is irrelevant to the condition of the electrical infrastructure and reconstruction efforts by the Iraqis, the USACOE, and numerous companies from the US, Japan, Britain, Germany, etc.
The generator man is not something new in Iraq, as his services also existed under Saddam.
No wonder you’re uninformed. You’ve never bothered to read any material that explains what is really happening with reconstruction.
October 19th, 2006 at 11:20 amHippie with a Pistol,
October 19th, 2006 at 1:12 pmIf he never wrote the story, how come it was published in the times on September 25th under his byline? Also - Ali Adeeb, Sahar Nageeb, Khalid W. Hassan and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting to the story.
Kirk, Walt Disney has never reported one story on deconstruction of torture room facilities in Iraq. His reporting is relevant to the condition of the Republican International Gulag and reconstruction efforts by the Somalis, the VDBFS, and numerous cronies from the UAE, Bosnia, Saudi Arabia, France, etc.
The ice cream man is not something new in Texas, as his services also existed under bush.
No wonder you’re informed. You’ve actually bothered to read material that explains what is really happening with deconstruction.
TRUTHINESS RULES!!!! HIPPIE KNOWS HIS SHIT!!!!
October 19th, 2006 at 3:15 pm[…] Three years after the U.S. invasion, electricity levels in Baghdad are at an all-time low. Residents of Baghdad are receiving just 2.4 hours of electricity this month, compared to an average of 16-24 hours of electricity before the U.S. invasion. The lowest level prior to this month was 3.9 hours/day. [CHART]read more | digg story Links […]
October 19th, 2006 at 3:26 pm#74 - you refer us ‘libs’ to the Corps of Engineers web site for the real scoop on electricity in Iraq. Here is what you’ll find at that site:
Much of the transmission lines cannot handle today’s rated power outputs of 400,000 volts (400Kva), or 132Kva from electrical generation sites needed to travel long distances across the country. A related difficulty lies in having properly equipped substations to step-down the voltage coming in and being fed out to other distribution stations or to the commercial and residential users.
Relative to this, recently the city of An Nasiriyah experienced an implosion of their distribution network. In June intermittent surges of power began destroying many of the transformers around the city, and by month’s end the situation was severe. Power rationing was needed to safe-guard remaining transformers, while insuring every user had an opportunity to get power.
In early August the people were demonstrating in frustration about the situation and by mid-month these demonstrations had turned violent. On August 22 reports of threats to the life of the Dhi Qar Province director general for Electricity characterized how dire the situation was.
October 19th, 2006 at 3:49 pmI so tried of people saying things are gettig better over there.
The basic by now should have been at 90% not dropping.
Geezee.
October 19th, 2006 at 4:15 pm#89 - marmoset,
October 19th, 2006 at 4:24 pmI did read an article about the wonderful exploding transformer stations and have near personal experience as well. My son, an environmental engineer for one of the major electrical utilities, sent a small (well compensated) crew over there to check on the whys and effects. They found underrated transformers where CBs had been replaced with copper bars. PCB levels were over the edge. It seemed that the contractors had located the toxic dump where all those ancient substation transformers had been stored.
Hippie’s posts certainly show a good amount of knowledge of projects underway on the Iraqi power system. ….I don’t doubt that much of what he says is true. It’s also true that the Brookings report only covers 4 days of October…but the number charted is hours/day, so those first days of October certainly *sucked* from the power system perspective. Here’s hoping things improve.
My big question is if 85 out of 210 projects have been completed, why is generation capacity at or just below prewar levels? Shouldn’t we be at prewar + 85 projects worth of additional capacity? Answer? No, because we’ve managed to unleash chaos across the country. And we’re struggling just to keep our heads above water.
I need to look at the data further, but due to the exposure of the transmission and distribution system to attack, I imagine that generation capacity may be easier to boost than power actually delivered to end Iraqi consumers, whether in Baghdad or elsewhere. Perhaps the vulnerability of power lines around Baghdad is the reason that power is being directed elsewhere in the country rather than into Baghdad? On of the commenters who claims to have been posted at Haditha says that the town always had power. Again, I wonder if the location of power consumption has been changing due to difficulties in keeping the T&D system intact.
October 19th, 2006 at 4:43 pm#92 - Sparcatus,
October 19th, 2006 at 5:28 pmThe problem is that Jerry has built most of the projects.
6 months ago GWB said there are 3 measures of progress in Iraq:
1) Electricity production
2) Oil produced to Market
3) Iraqi troops trained.
Item 1 is going badly, item 2 is going sideways, Item 3 is going sideways
October 19th, 2006 at 6:34 pm[…] For a long time the Administration kept dismissing the news that electrical power generation wasn’t improving in Iraq. Here’s a graph from Think Progress which shows how its declined. […]
October 20th, 2006 at 12:32 amWe won the ground, not their hearts.
Now we’re losing the ground.
We broke it, now we own it.
You know its so funny how today, when during Bush’s speeches he comes to Iraq, he mentions stuff like “we warned Saddam” before we invaded. And “when he didn’t comply” we went in. No one ever mentions “but, Mr. President, he had no WMD”. Instead, they keep playing softball with him and just nod heir heads.
October 20th, 2006 at 7:29 am[…] During the 1980 presidential campaign, candidate Ronald Reagan asked Americans: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” If you were an Iraqi how do you think you might answer Reagan’s question? Specially when you consider that after nearly four years of occupation, we can’t even keep the lights on. Filed under: […]
October 20th, 2006 at 7:45 amIn response to Bartholomew W. Kennedy’s comments: “You all make me sick with your got to have it now or it’s not worth it attitudes. “.
I think you doth protest too much my friend. It’s not that we want it right now or its not worth it, but we don’t have the time or that much money to wait for “W” to spread his version of democracy like its peanut butter. You can’t spread democracy this way. The people first must have a wont or dire need for it for it to become successful.
Case in point: When our own fledgling democracy got it’s start, we the people both wanted and needed it to suceed. However, from the time we declared our independance till the time we finally freed ourselves from the shackles of ole Mother England was the war of 1812. That’s 36 years!!! Until then our little exercise in self government was totally unproven, and that’s for a peoples’ whom wanted and needed it!!
So you think we have the time, patience, and monies to hand-hold another peoples’ country until they make it? I didn’t think so…we need to back right out of this mess we started, let them fight it out, and then pick up the remaining pieces that we broke. “You break it, you own it!”
Just think of what we could have really done with the monies spent there back over here. $400B plus. We could have really protected the American public by securing our borders better, done something more about the homeless, the un-insured medically, the poverty stricken masses, etc…. Need I go on?
This broken ideollogy our current Prez et al. have taken us down the road on has set back foriegn relations 30 years or more. We may as well be back in the 70’s for all that’s transpired. Middle East wars, high gas prices, and illegal spying on the public, so we all can feel a little safer? Safer from whom? Osama? Try our own Government friend. We need to be safer from them. When I served on a Federal Grand Jury, we, the jury was all that stood between the indicted and the full wieght of the government that they could bear on the accused. Now, all it takes is the Prez’s sayso or Rummy’s and we can be declared an “Enemy Commbatant”. Forget the court’s, let’s just go right to the torture camps, beat another confession out of someone, so we can go get someone else to torture. It’s a viscious cycle. When all you have to rely on your freedon is the sanity of the man-in-charge or his quisling underlings, your hopes for living long and prospering look pretty dim.
Good luck on that one! I, for one, don’t take my form of government for granted. I just don’t want it to become an overbearing, fascist, my-way-or-the-highway type.
October 20th, 2006 at 10:31 am[…] From Think Progress blog in the USA: Electricity Levels In Baghdad At Lowest Level Since U.S. Invasion […]
October 20th, 2006 at 10:58 amNo electirix. Not important. Things are going to plan. Chaos, death. fear. DU. Lets see what has been successfully done so far. Saddam is off Israels back. Price of oil kept high with pipeline ‘bombings’. Saddam no longer able to threaten oil trade in Euros. Partition approaching. Jewish Kurds will get Northern oil for Israel. Sunnis get the desert. Tough. Shias get the Basra oil, which should have gone to the Brits, who screwed up by getting caught on the way to bomb. They had to storm the jail to release their cowboys. Small problem now remaining is that if they get partition now, the Shia will start pumping oil, crash the price, and ..rebuild South Iraq. Brits need to have one more go to terrorize and placate the Shia. Give em time, takes planning. Lets see how this scenario unfolds. And.. not a word in the Mainstream BS press, about the US Falcon ammo dump in Baghdad, being blown-up last Tuesday.
October 20th, 2006 at 12:04 pmHow can people possibly say that infrastructure was completely wiped out after the “Shrub” invaded in 2003. Its still there …. still intact ….. and still operational and in working order. But !!! The old power stations that were providing power to the people 24/7 have been slowly told to shut down and and staff laid off ….. In favour of the Multi Billion dollar power stations built by the Coalition since 2003 Invasion
They are state of the art in oil fired/powered generator systems. There are at least 15 operational generators that I know of personally. With many more dotted around the major centres.
So ….. Why no power? Hmmmm ….. the Generator/Turbines are running at full capacity 24/7 ….. Iraqi staff are present at work operating the new facilities ….. the oil to supply power source is in PLENTIFUL supply. So …. who knows
And!!!!! the Haditha Dam IS running at full capacity, providing Hydro Electric ….. So …… Who knows.
October 20th, 2006 at 11:49 pmUNbelievable!! I’d call some of you people idiots….but my mother raised me to not call people names….so I won’t. It baffles me how these ‘reports’ get published…..oh yea…they’re put out by the liberal press. If the WHOLE story were told then the readers would know that before OIF began, Baghdad received the majority of the electricity….why?…..because it’s where Saddam lived….the rest of the country got squat. Well NOW the policy regarding electricity is that Baghdad must share equitably with the rest of the country. And NOW the locals that live in Baghdad are taking advantage of the free market that is now available to them, since Saddam is gone…..they are buying refrigerators, air conditioners, televisions, satellite dishes, and other electrical appliances that they never had before. It takes a non-idiot to figure out that this greater demand is going to mean even fewer hours of electricity for Baghdad, especially when combined with the fact that they must now share equally with the rest of the country.
So before you start bashing the efforts of the leadership, soldiers, and contractors over there, how bout if you think a little bit and do some research.
October 22nd, 2006 at 11:04 am[…] read more | digg story […]
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:36 pm[…] iraq has less electricity today on average than it had since the invasion and that appears to be declining even. Think Progress » Electricity Levels In Baghdad At Lowest Level Since U.S. Invasion since this thread can’t tolerate any negativity, i will say the iraqi’s are fortunate to have any electricity at all. __________________ "Listen. I mean that from my knowledge of the world that I see around me, I think that it is much more likely that the reports of flying saucers are the result of the known irrational characteristics of terrestrial intelligence rather than the unknown rational efforts of extraterrestrial intelligence." -Richard P. Feynman […]
October 25th, 2006 at 5:52 pm[…] Electricity Levels In Baghdad At Lowest Level Since U.S. Invasion In Sept. 2003, President Bush promised that he would help Iraqis “restore basic services, such as electricity and water, and to build new schools, roads, and medical clinics. This effort is essential to the stability of those nations, and therefore, to our own security.†But three years later, electricity levels in Baghdad are at an all-time low. Residents of Baghdad are receiving just 2.4 hours of electricity this month, compared to an average of 16 to 24 hours of electricity before the U.S. invasion. […]
November 4th, 2006 at 5:02 pmWhy does this not show the FACTs most people outside of baghdad Have way more electricity in fact alot of cities with close to 0 insurgent activity get 22 hours a day of electricity :)
January 28th, 2007 at 3:52 pmOh and any electricity problems in BAGHDAD are directly related to thugs/insurgents/terrorirsts. So please dont blame bush for the morons
January 28th, 2007 at 3:53 pm[…] thinkprogress.org » Electricity Levels In Baghdad At Lowest Level Since U.S. […]
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March 18th, 2008 at 8:24 am[…] this month, compared to an average of 16-24 hours of electricity before the U.S. invasion. Think Progress ? Blog Archive ? Electricity Levels In Baghdad At Lowest Level Since U.S. Invasion […]
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