Specials>Iraq in Transition
from the February 10, 2006 edition
Thanks largely to deteriorating security, electricity - along with water, sewage, and oil production - has dropped below prewar levels. Before the invasion, for example, Baghdad was receiving an average of at least 16 hours of power a day. Today, with insurgents targeting power plants and electrical lines on an almost daily basis, the city gets power just four hours each day on average.
"It's not enough to pay for the rent on my shop," says Shamari, whose salary supports an extended family of 13 in Diyala, outside Baghdad. "The rent is almost higher than whatever income I get from my work." He acknowledges that before the war, electricity wasn't nonstop, but it was available when he worked.
Iraq was generating 4,500 megawatts before the US invasion. But by November of last year that generation capacity had dropped to 3,995 megawatts, well below the national demand of 7,000 megawatts, according to a January report by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Production has slumped despite the $3 billion - of $18.4 billion authorized for Iraq reconstruction - the US has set aside for electricity projects.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0210/p01s03-woiq.htmlHot and getting hotter
Posted by Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer (10:59 am ET, 08/11/06)
The thermometer crept up to 108 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday, which might not seem unbearably hot for Baghdad, but only if you’re lucky enough to own a generator big enough to power an air conditioner.
Most of Baghdad does not. The capital has not had power since yesterday, which is a long stretch even by Iraqi standards.
Most neighborhoods get at least a one - or two - hour reprieve a day, but since the inauguration of the new government, our Iraqi colleagues say, there have been many more days without electricity of any sort. "Even last year we would have a few hours of power," said an engineer.
A few fortunate residents own small generators to beat the heat (using fans or water cooling machines), but even the smallest generator needs five gallons of gasoline to power it. And gasoline is almost as hard to come by as electricity.
http://onthescene.msnbc.com/baghdad/2006/08/hot_and_getting.html First Published 2006-11-12, Last Updated 2006-11-12 15:01:18
Hanging Saddam will only make him more popular
From the recent demonstrations against his death sentence, it has become very obvious that Saddam has an increasingly large number of supporters in the country despite his downfall, says Khalid Taha.
Iraqis have seen worse days from the US forces in 3 years than what they had endured under Baath rule for 30 years. Many of them do not see justice in Saddam’s trial, where he is to be hanged for executing 128 Iraqis following an assassination attempt on his life, yet today’s Iraq, the Iraq of Prime Minister Al Malliki under foreign occupation, witnesses the death of around 300 people a day. In fact, many point out that at least those 128 people had some sort of a trial where as now people are getting killed in horrid ways without even knowing why.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=18265http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/345