A couple of news stories this morning (other than 4 more US troops were killed overnight, bringing the August death toll to 20 in just 6 days, which puts it on-track to 100 by the end of month).

First, Iraq's Electric Ministry reports today that the national power grid is on the verge of collapse. Power plants are receiving less fuel, and have had to shut down. Baghdad is receiving less electricity this month, and that means that less water is being treated or pumped to businesses and residences. That means that the sanitation problem continues to get worse. And now the US general overseeing Iraq infrastructure says this is a problem for the Iraqis to solve themselves - even while the multinational fund-raising for re-building Iraq's infrastructure is nowhere near the set goal. Wait, how many years has it been since the fall of Baghdad, again?

Second, it needs to be stressed that one of the most underreproted facts about Iraq is the amount of unemployment there. Under Saddam's regime, the most stable and prosperous jobs were in oil, government, african trade, and most important, the military. Now with unemployment hovering at 50%, where are the good jobs? Well, it seems a UN News network has found one growth industry.