Lights Out

Once upon a time, the Bush Administration tried to put a happy face on the Iraq War by pointing out all the good things we were doing to the Iraqi people - other than killing them, that is. New schools, hospitals, water treatment plants, etc, were loudly touted as George W. Bush bringing enlightenment to the Iraqi masses. The fact that it was based largely on mercenary "contractors" and truly obscene war-profiteering was politely unmentioned by most of the media.

But reality, as Stephen Colbert so memorably pointed out, has a well-known liberal bias. It soon became apparent that the benefits of civilization weren't quite as advertised. The reconstruction projects were handed out mostly on the basis of political patronage, and billions upon billions of our tax dollars were wasted or simply stolen. Many of the projects were never actually built, and many others were built so shoddily that they're unusable. (It's not surprising that with such a track record, White House propaganda has returned to the fear-and-smear tactics of old, attacking anyone who criticizes our occupation of Iraq as Osama bin Laden's cabana boy.)

For example, electricity supplies in Baghdad, in the middle of that country's baking summer weather, have dropped from six or so hours daily to just one or two hours a day. Which means that in 130-degree heat, there is no lighting, no air conditioning and no refrigeration for most of the day. Now, piddling details such as this are supposed to be included in the State Department's weekly status report to Congress on conditions in Iraq - but the Los Angeles Times reported that the Administration quietly changed it some months ago. Instead, the White House now reports the total amount of electricity generated in the country, regardless of whether that electricity actually reaches the people of Iraq.

Even given the dismal state of the Administration's war efforts, the latest revelation is a doozy. After all, generating electricity doesn't make a bit of difference if it doesn't get to you and you can't turn the lights on. It also fits perfectly into the Administration's habit of hiding or otherwise disguising bad news rather than dealing with it. Either way, while the total-electricity-generated figure might be strictly legitimate, it's also profoundly dishonest.

Assuming, of course, that the electricity was actually generated. Given the record of fraud and theft on the part of profiteering contractors, it's certainly possible that even the misleading figures given to Congress are a mirage. It's like something out of George Orwell's 1984:

But actually, he thought as he re-adjusted the Ministry of Plenty's figures, it was not even forgery. It was merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another. Most of the material that you were dealing with had no connection with anything in the real world, not even the kind of connection that is contained in a direct lie. Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version as in their rectified version. A great deal of the time you were expected to make them up out of your head. For example, the Ministry of Plenty's forecast had estimated the output of boots for the quarter at 145 million pairs. The actual output was given as sixty-two millions. Winston, however, in rewriting the forecast, marked the figure down to fifty-seven millions, so as to allow for the usual claim that the quota had been over-fulfilled. In any case, sixty-two millions was no nearer the truth than fifty-seven millions, or than 145 millions. Very likely no boots had been produced at all. Likelier still, nobody knew how many had been produced, much less cared. All one knew was that every quarter astronomical numbers of boots were produced on paper, while perhaps half the population of Oceania went barefoot. And so it was with every class of recorded fact, great or small.

As we are unable to even keep the lights on in the capital on any reasonable schedule, President Bush and his inner circle must be clinically delusional and actively hiding from reality. That's the only explanation as to how they are still surprised that the Iraqi people want us out.