Iraq - a Black Hole!

Another reason to vote the Republicans out is that they have allowed both Iraqis and American companies to steal boldly many billions of our tax payer monies rather than securing that poor battered country from the resisting Iraqi insurgents and the terrorists now moving in to exploit the discontent there.

The BBC reports that the current Iraqi government is complaining that it has received less than half of $300 million promised for arming the Iraqi army. That figure is ironic because it is the same reported on a 60 Minutes segment that had been stolen during Paul Bremer's supervision from the funds allocated to arm the Iraqi army -- by Iraqis assigned to purchase them who had departed to lives of luxury in various European countries -- one even boldly boasted of his thefts and good new good life for 60 Minutes interviewers.

And the BBC also reports periodically on the undone projects produced by such as Bechtel and Halliburton (Cheney company which boasts periodically of its massive profits). Deals with such outfits are arranged secretly by the Bushies.

In sum we have been dumping vast sums of money into a black hole (or a rat hole, if you prefer that image) where they are misused in more ways than one can track. Most recently there is some question as to why we are now dumping half a billion into a huge new embassy in Baghdad if we are really planning to depart sometime from that devastated county with its 4 million refugees trying to survive -- 2 million who have fled the country, 2 million displaced within it -- all desperate and representing nearly 20% of its total population. Imagine how we would feel, should some outside force have devastated our country to get at our resources, executed Bush as an international murderer, destroyed our infrastructures and then turned us into desperate mutual murderers?

The sad part of the above is that our news media rarely connect the dots. They report that the Iraqi government (if you can call it that) is complaining about the lack of funding of its military (a dubious venture to start with as some of these guys use their weapons to shoot at our troops) without mentioning that we had done it before only to watch the monies being boldly stolen.

I for one am for getting out of this black hole ASAP with efforts to figure out how we can pay reparations for the millions of lives we have destroyed along with the infrastructure of this poor nation. Iraq is now in third place in numbers of fleeing refugees after the two other hell holes in Africa -- Palestine and the Sudan (Dafur). Imagine living in extreme summer temperatures now with only 1/2 hour of electricity a day -- if you are lucky. What's for lunch that is not already rotted?

See Bremer's own warning comments back in 2004 which were not heeded then -- nor now:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6194092/site/newsweek/#storyContinued
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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