This post from Tom Grant at his excellent blog Arms & Influence reinforces the point I (channeling Amory Lovins) made in this post, namely:

The centralized power grid in Iraq is intrinsically vulnerable to terrorist attack, thereby crippling our efforts to create some measure of security and civil society. Our determination to rebuild it, rather than assisting the development of a decentralized micropower grid, is driven by corporatism rather than clear-eyed strategy.

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Grant also makes another favorite point of mine, which is that the centralized grid serves as a mechanism of political control. That’s why Saddam built it that way. Conversely, a decentralized grid serves to decentralize political power as well. That’s part of why political powers fear it.

(via … hell, I forget now)

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