THINGS ARE GETTING WORSE IN IRAQ

Happy Christmas week! I finally had a moment to check out Riverbend's blog this weekend and, as usual, was moved by what I read. Here's an excerpt, first from her Christmas list:

1. 20 liters of gasoline
2. A cylinder of gas for cooking
3. Kerosene for the heaters
4. Those expensive blast-proof windows
5. Landmine detectors
6. Running water
7. Thuraya satellite phones (the mobile phone services are really, really bad of late)
8. Portable diesel generators (for the whole family to enjoy!)
9. Coleman rechargeable flashlight with extra batteries (you can never go wrong with a fancy flashlight)
10. Scented candles (it shows you care- but you're also practical)

That's the state of infrastructure/basics in the suburbs of Baghdad at this point. As for her list, it seems reasonable enough. She doesn't mention whether she's Muslim or Christian in the post, but she does mention that if Santa should choose to favor her household that he should just knock on the door, come in through the chimney and he might come face to face with an AK-47. ;)

Here's an excerpt from her December 12 post:

The situation seems to be deteriorating daily. To brief you on a few things: Electricity is lousy. Many areas are on the damned 2 hours by 4 hours schedule and there are other areas that are completely in the dark- like A'adhamiya. The problem is that we're not getting much generator electricity because fuel has become such a big problem. People have to wait in line overnight now to fill up the car. It's a mystery. It really is. There was never such a gasoline crisis as the one we're facing now. We're an oil country and yet there isn't enough gasoline to go around...

Oh don't get me wrong- the governmental people have gasoline (they have special gas stations where there aren't all these annoying people, rubbing their hands with cold and cursing the Americans to the skies)... The Americans have gasoline. The militias get gasoline. It's the people who don't have it. We can sometimes get black-market gasoline but the liter costs around 1250 Iraqi Dinars which is almost $1- compare this to the old price of around 5 cents.

Yeah, but River, you have to remember that Sadam was a madman and was raping in torturing thousands of people! Isn't the inconvenience of no modern conveniences and the deaths of possibly as many as 100,000 of your fellow Iraqis worth it?

SIGH.

Please, rest of the world that isn't America, rise up and stop us. The Empire needs it's nose tweaked--hard.