Interesting Engineering Discussion

An audio interview with Glenn Zorpette, from IEEE Spectrum who just got back from Iraq.

"The guerrillas have made it impossible to do anything in linear infrastructure. They aren't doing any of that now."

Here's his article in the Spectrum:

1,000 megawatts of decentralized "black market" diesel electricity being generated... (over 1/4 of the total for the country)

Overview: Massive corruption. Politically motivated engineering decisions. Broken markets. Factional politics. Theft (20% of centrally produced electricity is stolen). Dirty supplies (low grade fuels that clog turbines and an inability to connect natural gas supplies). Erosion of skill sets. A looted SCADA system.

Great article.