Jim Stillman
M-Kaz
Paying the bill for Iraq
August 8th 2008 18:45
According to David Morris, who has been embedded in Iraq as a reporter for the Virginia Quarterly Review and Salon, as of March, 2008, the cost of the Iraq war to the American taxpayer has been $4,563.18, per second! I’ll leave it to the math majors to compute the cost overall since the start of the exercise. Suffice it to say, it’s a hell of a lot of money.
We could have put this money to good use here in the United States. Imagine if you will, the same money rebuilding our roads, bridges, school buildings rather than spending the vast sums on building an infrastructure in Iraq. New Orleans is still not restored following Katrina, the mid-west is still recovering and rebuilding following the flooding of the past year, Florida and other states suffer from a real foreclosure crisis, our teachers are underpaid and our municipalities broke.
In fact, before we embarked on the Iraqi misadventure, invading a sovereign nation that posed no immediate threat to the United States, the potential costs were thoroughly considered. Leaving aside the now-accepted rationale for invasion, to create a virtual “gas station” for the United States and Big Oil, it was widely touted that the Iraqi war would cost the United States nothing, zilch, boopkus; the oil under Iraqi soil; would be utilized to get rid of Saddam Hussein, rebuild the Iraqi infrastructure and pave the streets with gold. (OK, the last was hyperbole.)
Here are some examples: From neo-con Richard Perle on July 11, 2002:
From Kenneth Pollack of the National Security Council in September, 2002:
The White House OMB Director in April, 2002:
“The United States is very committed to helping Iraq recover from the conflict, but Iraq will not require sustained aid."
And one of my favorites, Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense and a prime advocate of the Iraqi excursion, testified before Congress on March 27, 2003:
So, for no expenditure at all, according to the Bush administration, we would get rid of Saddam (thus outdoing Bush-41), ensure a supply of oil forever more, and create a Jeffersonian beacon of democracy in a region where the people shoot guns in the air to indicate pleasure, displeasure and, for all I know, constipation. Hoo-Hah.
So what happened? Is Iraq selling its oil and making lots of money? How much is being made and who is receiving it. Apparently neither the United States nor its taxpayers.
Where is the money?
A very substantial sum is sitting in the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, over $10 Billion! Oh yes, did I mention that you and I are paying that interest as a cost of the war? More about this later.
We have all heard about the “energy crisis”, the rising cost of oil. The gargantuan and obscene profits to Big Oil (Exxon, et al.) have also served to provide Iraq with enormous piles of money. The “crisis” felt so deeply by Americans at the gas pump, has resulted in a budget surplus for the Iraqi government estimated at being in excess of $97 Billion.
Last week, the non-partisan Government Accounting Office, at the request of The report was requested by two senior senators, Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, and John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, and on Tuesday they were quick to express strong dissatisfaction over the contrast between American spending on reconstruction and the weak record of spending by Iraq itself.
Senators Levin and Warner, the former the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a joint statement:
One would assume that the Iraqi money would be used to rebuild the country’s roads, schools and bridges, in short, all of the dramatic needs in the infrastructure. One would think that the money was being used to provide hospitals, doctors and health care for the people. One would also think that some of this surplus would be used to defray the costs of American servicemen and women who are being killed and horribly maimed to bring order.
If you had assumed any of this. . sorry.
According to the GAO, during the past three years, the Iraqi government has spent about 2-3 % of its budget on its own infrastructure. Iraq has spent less than $4 Billion; we have spent over ten times that amount.
Now back to the Iraqi money in the Federal Reserve Bank. It sits earning interest which we pay! According to an Iraqi Finance official, nearly$7 Billion from this year’s Iraqi oil income has been “invested” in United States Treasury Notes.
So, instead of Iraq spending its own income on rebuilding its own country, we are doing the job and Iraq is “loaning” us money.
What a crazy world. Do you need a better reason why a third Bush term, i.e. a McCain administration would be a disaster?
We could have put this money to good use here in the United States. Imagine if you will, the same money rebuilding our roads, bridges, school buildings rather than spending the vast sums on building an infrastructure in Iraq. New Orleans is still not restored following Katrina, the mid-west is still recovering and rebuilding following the flooding of the past year, Florida and other states suffer from a real foreclosure crisis, our teachers are underpaid and our municipalities broke.
In fact, before we embarked on the Iraqi misadventure, invading a sovereign nation that posed no immediate threat to the United States, the potential costs were thoroughly considered. Leaving aside the now-accepted rationale for invasion, to create a virtual “gas station” for the United States and Big Oil, it was widely touted that the Iraqi war would cost the United States nothing, zilch, boopkus; the oil under Iraqi soil; would be utilized to get rid of Saddam Hussein, rebuild the Iraqi infrastructure and pave the streets with gold. (OK, the last was hyperbole.)
Here are some examples: From neo-con Richard Perle on July 11, 2002:
"Iraq is a very wealthy country. Enormous oil reserves. They can finance, largely finance the reconstruction of their own country. And I have no doubt that they will."
From Kenneth Pollack of the National Security Council in September, 2002:
"It is unimaginable that the United States would have to contribute hundreds of billions of dollars and highly unlikely that we would have to contribute even tens of billions of dollars."
The White House OMB Director in April, 2002:
“The United States is very committed to helping Iraq recover from the conflict, but Iraq will not require sustained aid."
And one of my favorites, Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense and a prime advocate of the Iraqi excursion, testified before Congress on March 27, 2003:
"There is a lot of money to pay for this that doesn't have to be US taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people. We are talking about a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon."
So, for no expenditure at all, according to the Bush administration, we would get rid of Saddam (thus outdoing Bush-41), ensure a supply of oil forever more, and create a Jeffersonian beacon of democracy in a region where the people shoot guns in the air to indicate pleasure, displeasure and, for all I know, constipation. Hoo-Hah.
So what happened? Is Iraq selling its oil and making lots of money? How much is being made and who is receiving it. Apparently neither the United States nor its taxpayers.
Where is the money?
A very substantial sum is sitting in the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, over $10 Billion! Oh yes, did I mention that you and I are paying that interest as a cost of the war? More about this later.
We have all heard about the “energy crisis”, the rising cost of oil. The gargantuan and obscene profits to Big Oil (Exxon, et al.) have also served to provide Iraq with enormous piles of money. The “crisis” felt so deeply by Americans at the gas pump, has resulted in a budget surplus for the Iraqi government estimated at being in excess of $97 Billion.
Last week, the non-partisan Government Accounting Office, at the request of The report was requested by two senior senators, Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, and John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, and on Tuesday they were quick to express strong dissatisfaction over the contrast between American spending on reconstruction and the weak record of spending by Iraq itself.
Senators Levin and Warner, the former the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a joint statement:
“The Iraqi government now has tens of billions of dollars at its disposal to fund large-scale reconstruction projects….It is inexcusable for U.S. taxpayers to continue to foot the bill for projects the Iraqis are fully capable of funding themselves. We should not be paying for Iraqi projects, while Iraqi oil revenues continue to pile up in the bank.”
One would assume that the Iraqi money would be used to rebuild the country’s roads, schools and bridges, in short, all of the dramatic needs in the infrastructure. One would think that the money was being used to provide hospitals, doctors and health care for the people. One would also think that some of this surplus would be used to defray the costs of American servicemen and women who are being killed and horribly maimed to bring order.
If you had assumed any of this. . sorry.
According to the GAO, during the past three years, the Iraqi government has spent about 2-3 % of its budget on its own infrastructure. Iraq has spent less than $4 Billion; we have spent over ten times that amount.
Now back to the Iraqi money in the Federal Reserve Bank. It sits earning interest which we pay! According to an Iraqi Finance official, nearly$7 Billion from this year’s Iraqi oil income has been “invested” in United States Treasury Notes.
So, instead of Iraq spending its own income on rebuilding its own country, we are doing the job and Iraq is “loaning” us money.
What a crazy world. Do you need a better reason why a third Bush term, i.e. a McCain administration would be a disaster?
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Comment by Janet Collins
Acceptable Etiquette
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
Maybe it's all about the "guilt" for invading Iraq in the first place.
Janet
Comment by Jeff Musall
Secular Humanity