Whoa whoa whoa, Iraq has surplus what?
According to a NY Times article this morning, rising oil prices have left Iraq with a $79 billion budget surplus. The article points out that little or no funds from the Iraqi budget are being allocated towards rebuilding the country, because the US is paying for all of it. The article quotes John Warner (R. Virginia) as saying “The Iraqi government now has tens of billions of dollars at its disposal to fund large-scale reconstruction projects.” The article also quotes Mr. Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee as saying, “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.” No kidding! In fact, it wouldn’t be too far fetched to add in a request for a little bit of reimbursement. This situation is especially frustrating, given the fact that American officials promised that Iraqi oil would pay for the reconstruction of the country. That promise may have indeed been the catalyzing factor for many of those who initially voted for the action in Iraq. Who do we hold accountable?
Author: Ted Swenson
Holy crap! It makes sense to me that the US decided to pay for the rebuilding, and that they said that the oil surplus would help pay for it. What I can’t figure out is why the surplus got put in the wrong bank accounts. Why weren’t the funds diverted when we declared victory 5 days after the war started? I can see Iraq having ministry problems allocating this kind of cash, but we don’t, why weren’t we positioned in those offices that regulate this money? It seems to me that the old Saddam regime is managing to keep the cash under the mattress just like the past. The worst part is that a lot of the money is in New York, gaining interest and no American involved said anything until now. I find it hard to believe that only now is this truth coming out. The chart from NYT said that they had surplus money since 2005. mmmmm I smell scandal. Imagine the interest alone! Finally, I just want to say that I don’t really care who is accountable as long as it gets fixed in the next 10 minutes. The interest is in the millions per day!