That's some brink

There appears to be some concern that the power grid in Iraq might have some problems in the future

Iraq's power grid is on the brink of collapse because of insurgent sabotage of infrastructure, rising demand, fuel shortages and provinces that are unplugging local power stations from the national grid, officials said Saturday.

I'm not sure what that means. Being on the brink of collapse implies that it hasn't yet collapsed. But those same people are saying

Electricity Ministry spokesman Aziz al-Shimari said power generation nationally is only meeting half the demand, and there had been four nationwide blackouts over the past two days. The shortages across the country are the worst since the summer of 2003, shortly after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, he said.

Power supplies in Baghdad have been sporadic all summer and now are down to just a few hours a day, if that. The water supply in the capital has also been severely curtailed by power blackouts and cuts that have affected pumping and filtration stations.

The truth is that the power grid in Iraq did collapse, when we invaded Iraq and ousted Saddam. It's not on the brink of collapse, it already happened. And we havn't been able to rebuild it.