[Undertoad]

On the topic of leaving the electricity on: that was calculated. They have avoided hitting power plants. They're showing the Iraqis that this war is not about them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Mar21.html

In the run-up to the war, defense officials had suggested that the air campaign would showcase what in military jargon is being called "effects-based operations." Essentially, this involves trying to limit the number of munitions that are fired by focusing on the overall effect desired, rather than the extent of destruction.

Under the traditional targeting approach, for instance, if the idea was to shut off the electrical power of an enemy, every power station might be bombed. With the "effects-based" approach, only a few nodes might be hit to produce the same result.

"You do not have to attack each element of that system to make the system not work," Air Force Col. Gary Crowder, chief of strategy, concepts and doctrine at Air Combat Command, which supervises combat aircraft, said at a Pentagon briefing this week.