Re the quoted story's line, "nationwide electricity production is actually 15 percent higher than prewar levels. (4541 Mw in July 05 compared to 3958 before the war.)":

Megawatts is a measure of capacity, not production, which would be measured in megawatt-hours. It's the difference bwtween knowing the magazine capacity of your Lee-Enfield rifle and knowing how many shots you've fired. Of course, both electric capacity and output in Iraq could be up, but the numbers given don't speak to output.

Good post by Steenwyk, but did you perchance see this other one, right below it?

Man, Wolf. . . Wolf. Dude, really.

Of course, this is one of Jason Von Steenwyk's long-running pet peeves, one that I happen to strongly share.

If the press can't be bothered to learn the difference between a soldier and a Marine, a battalion and a brigade, and a Humvee and an AAV, how can anyone trust their analysis on the larger issues?

To anyone who thinks this is irrelevant minutiae, may I remind them that the media holds sports reporters to a higher standard than it does journalists on the military beat. After all, no one would care what a reporter had to say about the Super Bowl if they couldn't explain a first down to you. So tell me why the same standard doesn't apply to military matters, matters literally of life & death?

F'ing amateurs.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Belmont Club is analyzing as well: http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/

"So tell me why the same standard doesn't apply to military matters, matters literally of life & death"

Because the facts are irrelevant when the intent is not to report but to support policy positions. Fake but accurate as they say.

Oh the humvee could easily "survive" in a manner of speaking - like an elevator car free falling 30 stories can "survive".

This doesn't mean you won't be sponging out the contents of said humvee though.

A shaped charge needn't penetrate an armored vehicle to do damage, either. Some are intended to cause "spalling", where the interior armor is actually superheated and liquefied, which then flies around the interior of the vehicle and kills people that way. HEAT (High Energy Anti Tank) rounds do this.

But a correctly-designed shaped charge can penetrate several inches of armor plating -- the Israelis lost a Merkava tank a year or two ago to a shaped charge placed in a roadway. The charge opened that tank like a tuna can.