U.S. drops Baghdad electricity reports

Can you imagine life without electricity? I mean, I definately enjoy the occasional foray into the wilderness without tv, phones, even lights. But it's always nice to come home to a hot shower, microwave popcorn, and a dvd. That's what we know as “civilization.”

Well, daily civilized life in Baghdad has gotten so bad, the US government is just not going to report on it anymore. A bit of denial that sounds a little dysfunctional to me! From the LA Times:

WASHINGTON -- As the Bush administration struggles to convince lawmakers that its Iraq war strategy is working, it has stopped reporting to Congress a key quality-of-life indicator in Baghdad: how long the power stays on.

Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that Baghdad residents could count on only “an hour or two a day” of electricity. That's down from an average of five to six hours a day earlier this year.

...

Iraq's electricity supply has received less attention than other national indicators as debate over the president's surge has intensified in Washington.

The administration's July progress report focused on 18 benchmarks of Iraqi government progress toward political reconciliation among ethnic and religious
communities.

However, the reliability of the electricity supply has long been seen by Iraqis as a key indicator of the success of the U.S. enterprise.