Iraq I: On the Ground

The Bush administration continues to insist that the Mess in Mesopotamia is getting better, but its happy face spin cannot keep up with the reality.

As the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion approaches:

* Sectarian strife and revenge killings are at an all-time high, with the bodies of more than 85 tortured and executed men being found in Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods over the last two days. Go here for the gory details.

* Because of this orgy of violence, U.S. troops levels may have to be increased, albeit temporarily, because of the expected surge of pilgrims visiting Muslim shrines during religious holidays in the coming weeks. Details here.

WHEN WILL HE EVER LEARN?

Out on the hustings on Monday, President Bush gave the first of several speeches to shore up support for the war and said the following:

The IEDs [improvised explosive devices] we are seeing in Iraq today includes components that came from Iran. . . . Tehran has been responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-coalition attacks by providing Shia militia with the capability to build improvised explosive devices in Iraq. Coalition forces have seized IEDs and components that were clearly produced in Iran.

At a Pentagon press briefing yesterday, Marine Corps General Peter Pace, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked whether he had proof of Iran's complicity. His response:

I do not, sir.

ELECTRI-DEFYING!

A couple of weeks ago, Kiko's House gave New York Post columnist Ralph Peters a well deserved kneecapping for his myopic and slavishly pro-Bush administration coverage from Iraq.

Well, Ralphie Boy is at it again.

Here's his rose-colored glasses view of the state of Iraq's electrical grid.

"The electricity system is worse than before the war." Untrue again. The condition of the electric grid under the old regime was appalling. Yet, despite insurgent attacks, the newly revamped system produced 5,300 megawatts last summer--a full thousand megawatts more than the peak under Saddam Hussein. Shortages continue because demand soared--newly free Iraqis went on a buying spree, filling their homes with air conditioners, appliances and the new national symbol, the satellite dish. Nonetheless, satellite photos taken during the hours of darkness show Baghdad as bright as Damascus.

While this is the view of an actual Iraqi, Time magazine Baghdad bureau manager Ali al-Shaheen:

My house is in what you might call a middle-class neighborhood in central Baghdad. I should start with the caveat that things there are better than in many other parts of the city - and the country. But, we have state-supplied electricity six or seven hours a day. And this is actually an improvement! During the summer, we get three or four hours of electricity a day. Almost every house has a generator, running almost constantly. You can imagine the noise and pollution from thousands of generators - hundreds of thousands, if you count all of Baghdad. Another problem is that all the generators run on gasoline, and prices have shot up. One litre of gasoline used to cost 20 Iraqi dinars before the fall of Saddam; now, it's 250 dinars. Just as demand has soared, supplies have fallen, so you see long queues of people at gas stations. These are a favorite target for suicide bombers. Before the war, we had 20 hours of electricity a day in Baghdad. Of course, other parts of the country were not so lucky; in some places, there was only 12 hours of electricity.

(Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish.)

MORE FROM THE BAGHDAD BIG HOUSE

Salon magazine has posted another photo and video archive from Abu Ghraib prison. They are not for the weak stomached or people who believe that it's okey dokey for Big Bad American Troops to abuse prisoners.

The photographs and videos are from the Army's own internal investigation. According to Salon, they

record a harrowing three months of detainee abuse inside the notorious prison -- and make clear that many of those responsible have yet to be held accountable.