Via Robert Farley, a great Kingdaddy post on how the existence of modern electrical infrastructure in Iraq erodes the viability of a traditional "enclave" approach to counterinsurgency.
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Electricity and Enclaves
06 Aug 2007 10:52 am
Comments (4)
After hearing about all the problems with keeping the lights on, I'm surprised this post on TNR about an interview with Amory Lovins didn't get more blog play:
"Some of us have made three attempts at [bringing decentralized power to Iraq] and there's a fourth now under discussion. The first three attempts, the third of which was backed by the Iraqi power minister, were vetoed by the U.S. political authorities on the grounds that they'd already given big contracts to Bechtel, Halliburton, et. al to rebuild the old centralized system, which of course the bad guys are knocking down faster than it can be put back up."
http://www.tnr.com/blog/the_plank?pid=130103
Re "vetoed by the U.S. political authorities on the grounds that they'd already given big contracts to Bechtel, Halliburton, et. al to rebuild the old centralized system, which of course the bad guys are knocking down faster than it can be put back up."
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So the design allows for easy sabotage --sabotage which delivers ever more money to Halliburton for repair work?
To Cheney, that probably sounds like a feature, not a bug.
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Comments closed August 20, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
That's why Bill Clinton bombed the electrical generators and the water supply system--bigger bang for the buck.
Of course in Clinton's case a lot of little kids got diarrhea from drinking bad water and died of dehydration, about half a million of them but Madeline Albright told Leslie Stahl "it was worth it".
I guess the Iraqi resistance learned from us.
Posted by Don Bacon | August 6, 2007 12:02 PM