At Least We Painted Some Schools, Right?

Just appalling.

"I have so much anger," Abbas said outside the music store he runs in the poor neighborhood of Amil, in western Baghdad. When there is no power, there is no music playing in the store, and customers don't come. "I can't work," he said. "I can't support my family. We're dying from the heat. Where are these politicians?"

Abbas's comments reflect a wave of fury that has erupted across this country of 30 million as Iraq's sweltering summer begins. Most people are having to deal with electricity shortages that leave them with no respite from the heat and no water when their household electric pumps shut off.