According to U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, David Crocker, Iraqi oil exports have netted the country $41 billion last year, and are expected to make another $56 billion this year. Good for them. Not only are they make money by the barrel, but hey are hoarding it too! It is estimated that the country has $30 billion sitting in U.S. banks collecting interest by the day. Good for them again, now cough it up!
As the Republicans spin the testimony of Ambassador Crocker’s, and Gen. David Petraeus’s accounts of the progress in Iraq as something to behold, why are we the taxpayer, the people who have financed Bush’s illegal war getting the feathered end of the arrow? All we keep hearing from Petraeus and the rest of the Bush crowd is how fragile, and easily reversible the gains that have been made in Iraq are? Great, we get the point, now what about our predicaments?
As the politicians in Washington are engaged in their pissing contests about Iraq this and insurgent that, our country is going to hell in a hand basket! The economic situation in this country looks bleak. The housing and credit markets are bringing people to their knees. The cost of gas is one thing, the cost of everything else is another, and jobs are drying up faster than Atlanta’s water supply. Yet, the government is telling us that A:) our military presence will be in Iraq indefinitely, and B:) we still pay an exorbitant amount of U.S. dollars to finance Iraq’s reconstruction .
$27.6 billion is the total amount so far spent on major reconstruction projects in Iraq, as compared to the measly dollars spent by the Iraqi government from its own budget! According to the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the Iraqi Government budgeted $6.2 billion for its capital budget in 2006 but spent less than a quarter of it. As of August 31, 2007, the Iraqi Government had spent somewhere between 4.4 percent (according to the GAO) and 24 percent (according to the White House) of its $10.1 billion capital budget for 2007. As of last Thursday, the U.S. government is paying the salaries of almost 100,000 Iraqis who are working on reconstruction.
This is unacceptable people! This situation can be compared to making sure that the richest and wealthiest are the first in line at the local Food Bank to get their groceries for the week! We are paying somewhere between 3 to 4 dollars for a gallon of gas at the pumps. Gas which is refined from oil that comes from Iraq, and other Middle East Countries. Why are we paying twice? What exactly are we getting in return? The Republicans would have us believe that we are getting security in return for our dollars and blood spent in Iraq. Really? Is that the only reason?
We are pouring money into a country that can well afford to pay for its own reconstruction, and payrolls, so why aren’t they? That answer is a very simple one. Who stands to make the most money from our investment? The American reconstruction contractors of course, most notably KBR, and Halliburton! As our wallets are getting sucked dry, companies like these are making a profit! A crime is being committed and we are the victims.
While so much of our money is being poured into Iraq to rebuild it’s infrastructure, America’s is crumbling. A report in the local newspaper yesterday reports of a cracked 70 year old tunnel in New York State that is leaking 36 million gallons of water a day! A DAY! That’s not the only case according to EPA. It is estimated that between $277 and $480 billion is needed over the next several decades just to repair the country’s drinking water systems.
Water systems aside, what about our roads and bridges? What about the frail levee system in New Orleans? What about our reconstruction needs?
The next Administration will have one hell of a mess to clean up after the Bush nightmare, not only in Iraq but here at home as well. Let’s hope the next Commander in Chief will have his or her priorities in the right order this time!
Souce
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