Thursday, April 12, 2007

Iraqi Electricity



So we had an odd discussion in one of our endless mobilization training meetings, I think it was last week, about why the electricity power grid and delivery services are so poor in Iraq. The presenter gave 2 reasons- 1) Saddam’s poor maintenance programs and 2) the insurgents’ sabotage efforts. Sadly, and expectedly, he left off one of the painfully obvious reasons for the electricity problems: we “liberated” their electricity with the invasion back in 2003. I remember some articles about one of the “hi-tech” approaches to knocking out electricity that coalition forces used- projectiles that released filaments or wires that would become ensnared in the power lines and short them out. True, the insurgents’ efforts at sabotage have prevented progress, but there’s a difference between starting from an intact electrical infrastructure and what we left them after the invasion. Just another experience in the bizarre world of politics and doublespeak.

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