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State Dep't Ends Baghdad Electricity Updates
Let's say -- just, you know, as a hypothetical -- that the U.S. has a difficult time restoring electricity for residents of Baghdad. As Tony Snow famously observed, it's getting up to 130 degrees in the Iraqi capitol right now, and there's not more than an hour or two of power available a day for, say, a refrigerator or an air conditioner. Knowing that's the sort of thing that doesn't incline an Iraqi very well to either the U.S. presence or the Iraqi government, how does the State Department react? According to the Los Angeles Times, the first thing to do is to stop updating Congress about how bad the problem is:
(T)he department now reports on the electricity generated nationwide, a measurement that does not indicate how much power Iraqis in Baghdad or elsewhere actually receive.The change, a State Department spokesman said, reflects a technical decision by reconstruction officials in Baghdad who are scaling back efforts to estimate electricity consumption as they wind down U.S. involvement in rebuilding Iraq's power grid.
Department officials said the new approach was more accurate than the previous estimates, which they said had been very rough and had failed to reflect wide variations across Baghdad and the country.
"Nothing is being hidden. There is no ulterior motive," said David Foley, the department's Middle East spokesman. "We are continuing to provide detailed information and have been completely transparent."
The State Department's new method shows that the national electricity supply is 4% lower than a year ago, according to the July 11 report.
Add "Baghdad electricity" to the Great List of disappeared information over the last six and a half years. Last one out, please turn on the lights.
Josh
Zachary
No news is good news! LOL
Help support our troops, Impeach Bush / Cheney 07
July 27, 2007 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have others noticed that with the decrease of journalists in Iraq we are receiving less info on the overall state of things there?
Also, have you noticed the numbers of US troop deaths has gone down? Suggesting that the troops aren't doing the kind of "surge patrols" the surge is supposed to be for?
Methinks they want to have less casualties, less carnage info, so as to lull the population into forgetting about the war and its nefarious effects, so that they have a better means of getting congress to authorize what they want - in September.
Sometimes they distract us with decoy fires. And sometimes with no news about the real fires.
We need to keep our eyes peeled. And our suspicions handy.
July 27, 2007 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have lived in that part of the world, and I CANNOT imagine living in one of those cities in the summer without meaningful electricity. Add that to the fact that many/most people can't work etc, I have no idea how people manage to function on a day to day level, and with no end to the madness in sight. The despair must be palpable. No wonder there is so much chaos and anarchy.
July 27, 2007 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you don't report it it's not happening.
July 27, 2007 12:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
"have you noticed the numbers of US troop deaths has gone down?"
That happened in July of 2006 and July of 2005 as well, only to rise again in August and September; check the history at icasualties.org
There are lots of reasons why that might be happening now, but it's also a pattern.
July 27, 2007 12:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is my experience that when someone asserts "Nothing is being hidden. There is no ulterior motive", the opposite is usually true.
July 27, 2007 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are right, Nell. Except that they only recently notified us that the surge is now really there. And they also notified us that they expect the surge to lead to more casualties.
Maybe the same pattern holds - as you describe it. Maybe the insurgents take the summer off too.
Interesting. We can only speculate. But I'm sure the terrorist surveillance program knows..
July 27, 2007 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
If I were an insurgent, I'd take the summer off. Who wants to build bombs in 130 degree heat, with no air conditioning?
No matter what the State Detpartment says, nationwide power generation is a loophole big enough to hide a small Middle Eastern nation in. America, for example, generates a whole lot of power, but households only consume a small fraction. Industry takes the large amount. For Iraq, I'd be willing to bet that contractors get the lion's share of the power, and the people get what's left over, rationed into a few hours a day. With the new measures, they can increase power production and the people on the street don't have to see any more of it, because there's no way to measure what's industrial power helping line Cheney's pockets with oil money, and what's actually helping Joe Iraqi feel more comfortable in his home.
I feel so terrible for those people. I live in the deep South right now, and I can't imagine our 110 heat without air conditioning.
July 27, 2007 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just like the time a Bush official got rid of hunger by simply eliminating the term from government reports. I guess it's become SOP for the Bush administration.
d
July 27, 2007 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
lack of proof = progress
July 27, 2007 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
The numbers of US troop deaths has gone down when you compare July with say March, April, May, June.
But the numbers for July 07 are higher than the numbers for any previous July.
July 27, 2007 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unemployment is lower when you dont count those who've given up searching. By extension, I suppose shrub and co must think that outrage at their incompetence w/be lessened by lies. Omission is just as much of a lie as fabrication.
July 27, 2007 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
As mentioned, the amount generated doesn't equal the amount consumed. Changing which numbers are used means that any charts require recalibration.
Consider how much of the grid has been sabotaged: they are producing multi-megawatts of power which never reach the city because of disruption and downed lines. They could generate 10 times the electricity, but it still wouldn't get to the people.
It is just like pumping oil, only to have the pipelines broken or tapped. Measuring how much you pump from the ground has no relationship to how much was delivered to the refinery. Measuring how much was refined means nothing to the ship captain waiting for cargo which never arrives.
The only meaningful number is what the consumer has available for use or purchase.
IIRC, Juan Cole several months ago talked about the militias encircling Baghdad and cutting it off by bombing bridges and transmission towers.
Electrical power is necessary not only for air conditioning, but to pump and purify water. People can survive without AC (we did for millennia), but we can't live without water.
July 29, 2007 12:18 AM | Reply | Permalink