Comments on: Iraq May Have $79B Budget Surplus

GAO Finds Oil Prices Bolstering Iraq's Treasury, As Some Ask Why U.S. Taxpayers Keep Supporting Reconstruction

[taotxzen]

(cont)

Remember, also, that soon after the invasion, Donald Rumsfeld''s deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, told the press that war was our only strategic choice. "...We had virtually no economic options with Iraq," he explained, "because the country floats on a sea of oil."

Shades of Daniel Plainview, the monstrous petroleum tycoon in the movie "There Will Be Blood." Half-mad, he exclaims, "There''s a whole ocean of oil under our feet!" then adds, "No one can get at it except for me!"
No wonder American troops only guarded the Ministries of Oil and the Interior in Baghdad, even as looters pillaged museums of their priceless antiquities. They were making sure no one could get at the oil except... guess who?

(cont)

[taotxzen]

(cont)

Here''s a recent headline in The New York Times: "Deals with Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back." Read on: "Four western companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power."

There you have it. After a long exile, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, and BP are back in Iraq. And on the wings of no-bid contracts -- that''s right, sweetheart deals such as those given Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater. The kind of deals you get only if you have friends in high places. And these war profiteers have friends in very high places.

Let''s go back a few years to the 1990''s, when private citizen *** Cheney was running Halliburton, the big energy supplier. That''s when he told the oil industry that, "By 2010 we will need on the order of an additional 50 million barrels a day. So where is the oil going to come from? While many regions of the world offer great oil opportunities, the Middle East, with two-thirds of the world''s oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies."

[taotxzen]

(cont)

Fast forward to Cheney''s first heady days in the White House. The oil industry and other energy conglomerates have been handed backdoor keys to the White House, and their CEOs and lobbyists were trooping in and out for meetings with their old pal, now Vice President Cheney. The meetings are secret, conducted under tight security, but as we reported five years ago, among the documents that turned up from some of those meetings were maps of oil fields in Iraq -- and a list of companies who wanted access to them. The conservative group Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club filed suit to try to find out who attended the meetings and what was discussed, but the White House fought all the way to the Supreme Court to keep the press and public from learning the whole truth.

Think about it. These secret meetings took place six months before 9/11, two years before Bush and Cheney invaded Iraq. We still don''t know what they were about. What we know is that the oil industry is enjoying swollen profits these days. It would be laughable if it weren''t so painful to remember that their erstwhile cheerleader for invading Iraq -- the press mogul Rupert Murdoch -- once said that a successful war there would bring us $20 a barrel of oil. The last time we looked, it was more than $140 a barrel. Where are you, Rupert, when the facts need checking and the predictions are revisited?

[superbird6pk]

I thought this war was supposed to pay for itself. Looks like they can afford to give the U.S. taxpayers a refund.

[steuprice]

Just goes to show that if you don''t wean the Iraqis off of U.S. dependence then they will just keep milking us and playing the I''m inept card. The Iraqis have been living in a corrupt hand-out and black market govenrment system since 1968, this is what they are accustomed to and expect.

[taotxzen]

Proof that this campaign is actually about a culture war in this country:

McCain Offers His Wife Up to Topless Biker Babe Beauty Contest

By: bluegal @ 6:00 PM - PDT

Oh, you think we%u2019re making that up? CNN, my friends:

McCain felt so comfortable at the [Sturgis Motorcycle Rally] event that he even volunteered his wife for the rally%u2019s traditional beauty pageant, an infamously debauched event that%u2019s been known to feature topless women.

%u201CI encouraged Cindy to compete,%u201D McCain said to cheers. %u201CI told her with a little luck she could be the only woman ever to serve as first lady and Miss Buffalo Chip.%u201D

*Necks* response, *Dang!* (very impressed)

[promaclaura]

Since 2005, the United States has funded a number of efforts to teach civilian and security ministries how to effectively execute their budgets.

The efforts included programs to advise and help Iraqi government employees develop the skills to plan programs and to effectively deliver government services such as electricity, water and security.

Saddam did none of these things, he kept it all to himself. Saddam''s palaces and statues graced a countryside of hovels, unreliable electricity, and scarce water. I hope the people of Iraq can learn fast and overcome decades of a tyrant''s control.

[promaclaura]

"It is time for the sovereign government of Iraq, using its revenues, expenditures and surpluses, to fully assume the responsibility to provide essential services and improve the quality of life for the Iraqi people," Warner said.

I agree!

[antoniof123]

Way to go this will haunt the GOP for an entire generation.

[jmurrieta1]

Not to worry! A lot of that money will be going straight to Halliburton and to Bush''s cronies.

Problem solved!

[whiskyrokkr]

No WMD''s were found because they never existed. Now let''s get the He*l out of there.

[armydog2]

So why are American taxpayers still footing the bill?

[panhandlpete]

Why should Iraq pay for a war they didn''''t start?
I hope they find those WMD''''s soon so American troops can come home.
Posted by onemoretim at 06:17 AM : Aug 06, 2008

Why should the American taxpayers have to pay for a war THEY did not have any say about? Does anyone think that IF the truth had been told initially to Congress, that they would have supported this war? If any WMD''s are found, it will be because the finders put them there to be found when the most beneficial political moment arrives to find them.......DUH.

Trust is earned, and when it is broken, doubt will always be present if not prominent!

Close the embassy and bring ALL our troops home from Iraq.......then they can once again be a country of their choosing.

[fstop100]

our own corrupt government profits from this

[tapsettle]

Just in case you hadnt figured it, heres how it is. The US leadership fixed and fabricated a case to invade Iraq. A population is responsible for its elected leaders, therefore the population is responsible for the death and destruction in Iraq caused by the invasion. Taxpayers must pay for the mess so that in future they wont elect (and re-elect)such harmful leaders. It could be worse, the harm has not (yet) escalated to a 3rd world war. Close though, and there still may yet be time.

[omnibus66]

''The GAO said Iraq had an estimated cumulative budget surplus of about $29 billion from 2005 to 2007 and could have another surplus of up to $50 billion this year.''

And we are still spending more than 2 billion per week there, as well as getting more of our kids killed and maimed.

Makes me want to puke, right in Bush''s face.

[tapsettle]

And what about those who say the iraqis aren''t doing enough, that they must meet ''benchmarks''? Not just republicans saying that either. How can anyone with an ounce of decency and even only half a brain blame the iraqis for the mess their country is in now?

[advanceus]

Plus they have the oil!!! *** happens.

[tapsettle]

Hang on a minute. If I went around someones house, smashed it up, killed some of the occupants, and it turned out my stated reasons for doing so (they had bombs aimed at me) were not true, wouldnt the very LEAST thing that I could do be to pay for the damage and help repair the place? Personally I think the US must fix and pay for the country they have smashed up, and the ringleaders ought to go to jail for the killings too.

[jankvkleve]

As long as American taxpayers pay the bill, American contractors (all friends of Bush/Cheney) get the money. From the beginning, this was about moving large sums from the public purse to the arms suppliers, engineering firms, oil companies, etc., who support Bush. That''s how his father and British prime minister, John Major, ended up on the payroll of the Carlyle Group after the first Gulf War. Same group of buddies, same rip-off of the taxpayers during Bush, the sequel.