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Or if they do report it, without the anti-War Agenda Spin!
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Posted on 09/18/2007 6:11:02 PM PDT by SandRat
BAGHDAD — With most Iraqi families living on only one hour of electricity per day, life’s been tough for Karkh District resident Rawaa and her family. But, with a new generator and better security in her neighborhood, the future looks a little brighter as a new 1.75-megawatt generator was recently turned on near their home in central Baghdad.
Electricity is very important for their lives,” the mother of eight told Lt. Col. Kenneth Crawford, commander of the 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd “Black Jack” Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. “We used to get one hour a day … for their school … for their studies … we are happy about it.”
The project, estimated to cost $355,000, started in July and included not only bringing up the generator, but also constructing a building to house the generator and electrical wiring to nearly 300 homes. The project also called for a new electrical network – a new grid system in place of the old national power grid they once had.
According to the lead project manager, Capt. Marc Motyleski, of the 2nd BSTB’s Infrastructure Coordination Element, the generator will be able to feed the 300 homes it is connected to with more than 10 amps per household.
“It should be enough to power a refrigerator, fan, TV, and lights … basic necessities for an Iraqi household for 14 hours a day,” the Woodbridge, Va. native said.
There have been several generator projects throughout their area of operations, but this one is “huge” in comparison, Motyleski added.
“On average, most of the generators we’ve put in have been around 250 kilowatts. (This one), at 1.75-megawatts is almost seven times greater than the average generator,” he said. “Just think, getting electricity done means a lot for them; electricity is an essential service. You need electricity to run water. It’s the base of essential services.”
As Karkh Neighborhood Advisory Council and District Advisory Council members were present with members of the 4th Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment to officially turn on the generator, one member said it should give service to approximately 2,000 people throughout the 300 homes.
Motyleski said there are a few more generator projects in the works and that soon, there will be a time when most Karkh residents have the same power for more than half the day, but that it could not be a reality if not for the security forces ensuring that the generators keep running.
“That is the big difference here,” he said. “Our security is better than other districts because there are a lot of Iraqi Security Forces out there.”
The generator’s upkeep and maintenance will be handled by a contractor who will charge a nominal fee to the users while the Karkh NAC will have someone who will come by to check on it weekly.
“I feel like we’re doing something worthwhile,” he said. “It makes me feel like I have a significant impact on people’s lives.”
FR WAR NEWS! No A/C in that HOT desert...oh geeezzzz
It only gets 5 - 10 degrees hotter than Phoenix AZ in the summer.
Yeah?.... Well as far as I am concerned..It’s as hot as Hell in Pheonix during the summer! :o)
After a hurricane here...if we lose power...we can hook up a generator and run a window unit.
“It should be enough to power a refrigerator, fan, TV, and lights … basic necessities for an Iraqi household for 14 hours a day,” the Woodbridge, Va. native said.
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Heck, I wouldn’t plug any of that stuff in, if i could run
one room AC instead. I’d eat room temp food, in the dark, and listen to a pocket radio, and count myself lucky.
Only in the places where his supporters lived, the rest got some ratioed power, and the Shias got damn litte. Not sure, but I don’t think Sadr City was ever even wired...
That country has a long way to go. Hope the Iraqi government will take the wealth from the oil and make this country a liveable country for the Iraqi people otherwise it will continue to suck.
That’s what we do when a ‘cane hits...just run a window unit...we cook on a charcoal grill...but can sleep at night in a nice cool room. If a big one hits...then it’s rent a motor home...
Is that correct or did they mean 100 amps?
I supect they did mean 100 amps.
I’ll say it again : gen-sets are going to save the day in iraq. Main grid lines are far too easy for the terrorists to take down but neighborhood gen-sets mean independence from the grid. Ironically that’s how the overall picture is shaping up : local oases of calm in a national mess of politics, tribal and religious rivalries, al queda, iranian spies...may those oases grow and prosper...
may those oases grow and prosper
Amen
About the same as 7 JDAM bombs.... a very good deal, IMO.
JDAMs definitely have their place, but if you want somebody to think like a human with an interest in stability, nothing beats a working refrigerator to get their mind moving in the right direction.
From afar it is easy to see iraq’s problems. Back in WWI and in the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire, a power vacuum occurred throughout the middle east. Thus a british officer drew arbitrary lines on the map(jordan, syria, iraq, kuwait, etc)w/o any idea of the TRIBES living there. Thus the divided kurds, sunnis, shia, persians in a patchwork quilt of 50 tribes in iraq alone.
Saddam then exploited those divisions, pitting sunnis against both the shia and kurds(divide and conquer). Thus for 30 years the iraqis have only known brutal suppression, poverty and tribal loyalty, true nationhood and democracy are foreign concepts. This was GWBs great failure : naively thinking that this long cultural past and habits would change overnight.
The movie is Lawrence of Arabia : TRIBALISM is the arab way, not pan-arabic governments. The extended family of the TRIBE is then their first alliegence and that’s why oases of neighborhood gen-sets and water purification equipment is the way to go. Electric/water healthy cells FIRST, based upon the tribal model, then later a healthy iraqi democracy where ballots replace bullets. To wit, a bottom up model instead of a general, USA imposed, top down model of how iraqis should live/interact.
Also, some would have qualms about our 2nd amendment rights for all iraqis, but if practically everyone was armed, the shia dressed as police-whacking sunnis-death squad killings would CEASE very quickly. That 2nd amendment has kept us from various dictatorships, from left and right, for 220 years, a would-be shia murderer thinks twice when invading a sunni home to kill : what if he’s faster on the draw and more accurate?
So, give them electric/water independence, registered guns means NORMALITY returns to iraq, the saddam/terrorist era is OVER, they just won’t tolerate it any more.
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