THE STATE OF IRAQ….The New York Times has the Brookings Institution’s semi-annual “State of Iraq” summary in today’s paper. Here’s a summary of the summary (I know you’re busy people):
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Oil and electricity production: getting worse.
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Car and telephone use: getting higher.
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Public opinion: moving against us.
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Number of trained Iraqi security forces: getting better.
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Strength of insurgency: about the same.
The most striking data point is (presumably) a result of more cars and less oil: the average length of gasoline lines is now one mile (the same as it was six months ago, but ten times as high as 18 months ago). At a guess, that means the average line is about 300 cars long and the average wait time is at least five hours ? and probably more. Ouch.
