Electricity Shortages Lead to Iraqi Outrage

I guess the surge doesn't really address this issue:

Electricity output in Iraq has been slightly lower this summer than last year. For the fifth year since the 2003 invasion, Iraqis sweat out sleepless nights on their roofs, seeking to escape the heat inside their homes. They see food spoil in warm refrigerators and go without water as household electric pumps sit idle. Televisions can't be used to keep kids from going out into the dangerous streets. Those who can afford a generator or tap into a neighbor's can get power for as long as they can pay the increased prices of diesel fuel. Those who can't have seen their power cut to less than an hour a day at times.

The electricity shortage is a major source of anger and disillusionment toward both the Iraqi government and the U.S. presence here. But much of the summer's shortfall is caused by bureaucratic snags that continue to stymie a plan for importing Kuwaitidiesel fuel—needed to power many government generators.[...]