Interesting piece briefly comparing the situation in Iraq to our recent blackout, then turning to the problem of the Americans running Iraq living "in the Bubble."
Their power doesn't go off; or if it does, their diesel generators kick right in and they've got the diesel to run them. Bremer's air conditioning works, as you can see by those crisp shirts he wears. So do the phones, which are provided exclusively by the bankrupt but well-connected American company MCI.Posted by Jason at August 18, 2003 11:42 AMIn one of those bizarre daily routines to which the press is subjected (after 90 minutes being searched, scanned, and sniffed by dogs, then waiting behind cordoned rows of seats for each briefing in this "increasingly secure"? country), there's an admonition to "turn off your phones."? But the only phones that ever ring, because they're the only ones that work indoors, are those MCI phones in the pockets of the briefers themselves.
For a few days at the end of July, a couple of companies from Bahrain and Kuwait actually did set up a working cell-phone network for the public. But Bremer shut it down right away. According to the briefer sent out to meet the press, the "illegal"? Bahrain and Kuwait phone service was interfering with U.S. military communications and the MCI network. The public's phones were causing problems, in other words, for all those folks in the Bubble. Now we're told "legal"? phones won't be in operation until mid-November at the earliest.