So now we're running the Iraqi government like a business.

But several American and Iraqi specialists contend the U.S. occupation authority has been slow to address the problem. Immediately after Hussein’s government fell, they maintain, more money and attention should have been focused on buying spare parts and trucking in large, gas-powered generating units that can each power as many as 40,000 homes. Doing so, they insist, would have reduced the frequency of blackouts and the anger that crystallized toward the occupation.
“If they had recognized the problem sooner and devoted more resources to it, the problem wouldn’t be as bad as it is now,” said an American electrical engineer who works with the occupation authority and spoke on condition of anonymity. “Iraqis would have seen a real improvement in their lives.”

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