U.S. Said To Use "Money As Weapon" In Iraq

Washington Post: U.S. Troops Pay Cash To Iraqis To Cover Expenses And Win Over Civilians

(CBS/AP)  A U.S. Army program in which soldiers pay cash to Iraqis to help with expenses, large and small, has spent $2.8 billion in five years, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The Post reviewed records of the Commander's Emergency Response Program, which was intended for short-term humanitarian relief and reconstruction. The field manual laying out the guidelines for the program is called "Money as a Weapon System," pointing up the effectiveness of cold hard cash in winning over the hearts and minds of Iraqi civilians.

The largest sum of CERP money, $596.8 million, was spent on water and sanitation projects, the Post reported. Three other categories each received more than $300 million: electricity; protective measures, such as fencing and guards; and transportation and roads.

But the Army also spent lesser sums on smaller acts of largesse, including $48,000 for children's shoes; $50,000 for 625 sheep; $100,000 for dolls; and $500,000 for action figures designed to look like Iraqi security forces, the Post reported.

The newspaper reported that soldiers and their commanders say the program works because there is little red tape, allowing them to fill immediate needs in their assigned towns and cities. Few in Washington will openly criticize the popular program for fear of alienating the troops, the Post reported.

CERP was recently given an additional $1.2 billion - to be split between Iraq and Afghanistan - according to a July report by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, the Post reported.

Lawmakers also have proposed to exempt it from restrictions on the spending for large reconstruction projects in Iraq in the future. But after reports that the Iraqi government is running a budget surplus of up to $50 billion, Sens. John W. Warner, R-Va. and Carl M. Levin, D-Mich. have asked the secretary of defense to review CERP oversight and regulations and said they want Iraq to shoulder more of the rebuilding costs, the Post reported.

[babooph]

Bush & Cheney would take their pants down in church for money-they were idiot enough to think all would.LBJ tried to bribe HO -he chose to win instead of take the $-Bush was too drunk at the time to notice,& Cheny is still to drunk to see.

[guadalcanal3]

This is nothing new...America has always used money as a weapon...Tell us something we don''t know.

[impeach__w]

I want my money back! I did not work my a$$ off to give it to the IRS so W and Co. could bribe thier way in or out of ANYTHING- and especially IRAQ!!!!

[intheshade-2009]

The US has no friends in the world anymore, only those they pay for. Like a dirty old man going to a prostitute.

[inventagod2]

Yes, the SPLURGE is working!

I wonder if the GAO even knows the dollar amount of the invasion?
...and how much is just mi$$ing???

[ioweign]

Imagine that? No one has ever heard of cash as a weapon before. You people have a lot to learn about fighting wars.

Posted by cbscrash07 at 03:54 PM : Aug 11, 2008


And how many have you fought ?

[misha128-2009]

The US may say it does not negotiate with terrorists, but the Republicans allow the military to negotiate with terrorists and to buy off terrorists.

[nycsense]

I would like to hear one of the Bush/Cheyney loving fools that enjoy posting on these boards explain again why the "surge" is working. Well, here is the most logical explaination, the Bush Administration is bribing the Iraquis not to kill our soldiers, and THAT is what''s working. They should have called it "THE SPLURGE" instead. I paid $35,000 in mf-ing taxes last year, and now I know where it went! If anyone here still thinks that Bush and Cheyney then you are an un-American lemming. You beleive anything this administration tells you, and then you complain when more money is not reaching your dinner table. Then the laughable part is that you blame the democrats for everything when they haven''t been in any real power for 8 years. Also when something else happens, instead of blaming Bush, you all blame it on Clinton. This has to be the most retarded logic I''ve ever heard! I know most of you Bush lovers barely made through high school, but did you all receive a labotomy instead of a college degree as well? It''s like this country is filled with gullable lemmings.

[delfmast]

editorialstaff net notes: We could have paid all of the Vietnamese soldiers who fought us for most of my military career, to fly to our various cities, at our expense, and collect our garbage, abandoned cars, used appliances, and game animals killed on our highways, for recycling. We could further, have paid for shipping, in US flagged ships, all of that garbage, and the collected frozen game animals, and the abandoned automobiles and white goods, like refrigerators, washing machines, and other appliances to Vietnam, to be sorted, and utilized in Vietnam, or recycled. Saving the lives of most of our 58,000 KIA, and the horror of wounds inflicted, physical, mental, and other, on our millions of military personnel, taken with saving the lives of most of those we killed in Vietnam, by paying every one of their soldiers to work, would have been a profitable, and moral approach. We should support the same approach in Iraq, with government incentives for US companies opening stores, factories, and other employment opportunities for Iraq''s fighting age men and women. Paying the unemployed to do useful reconstruction work, collect, ship and recycle our garbage, or fight their terrorist friends is far better than killing them, or fighting them. The market works, and unemployed young men, with no wealth, no food, and few skills, will do anything for money to feed their families. If we do not pay them, the enemy will.

[pastdue1]

Probably of the $596.8m, (over 1/2 billion) US taxpayer dollars spent on the water and sanitation projects, more dollars went into Iraqi and American contractor''s pockets than was applied to the actual projects. Also. it seems, many of the facilities that have been built don''t work because they aren''t maintained. The same is probably true of the $300m spent on the electricity, etc.
However, of the small amounts distributed directly by our soldiers, probably the largest proportion went directly to the Iraqi people. This should tell us something about why we are in the war and for whom it has been fought and who has benefitted the most from Bush''s War. Certainly it has not been the ordinary honest citizens of the US or the ordinary honest citizens of Iraq~ we do have something in common with the Iraqi people, we both have been screwed royally.

[Syndicate]

Imagine that? No one has ever heard of cash as a weapon before. You people have a lot to learn about fighting wars.

[photogeezer]

Where is the outcry from "conservatives" that we hear when it''s brought up to fund our own poor, healthcare, and veterans'' care? It must be OK to hand it out to bribe Sunni leaders to lay off so that it looks as if the "surge" is "working", to pay unaccounted for billions to the corrupt Iraqi goverment or to incompetent, corrupt contractors.

Make no mistake about it - this is OUR money, the fruit of OUR labor - taxi miles driven, children taught, accounts balanced, homes framed, wired, and plumbed, ditches dug.

C''mom, Wall St Journal, let''s hear it.

[sistatee-2009]

Three other categories each received more than $300 million: electricity; protective measures, such as fencing and guards;

Fencing? I thought the government said fences didn''t work.

[parrots11]

But the Army also spent lesser sums on smaller acts of largesse, including $48,000 for children''s shoes; $50,000 for 625 sheep; $100,000 for dolls; and $500,000 for action figures designed to look like Iraqi security forces, the Post reported.


Most REpugs would love to get more of these and will critise any kind of spending for the benefit of any other American. Cheers!

[txlakeside]

menmo ... you sound very paranoid about the Chinese. Bush is in fact dumb as dirt .... plain and simple. It does not take the Chinese "forging" sound bites for any one to understand that he is just "DUMB"!

"I don''t care what the polls say. I don''t. I''m doing what I think what''s
wrong."

George W. Bush
March 15, 2000
The presidential candidate referring to his proposed economic plan---as
reported in the New York Times

I have 1000''s more of the dumb as dirt "SHRUBS" words of widom if you want them! Geez there are google gadgets, calendars and books full of his raping of the English language! You must be as dumb as he is if you balme the Chinese!

[lambor59]

Didya see Bush''''''''''''''''s interview last night while in Bejing? LMAO - he can''''''''''''''''t even string vowels together and make it sound legit. The man is a DOPE!
Posted by cricketbeers at 10:52 AM : Aug 11, 2008

yes this dude is doped, his stupid wife and 2 ugly daughters doped too, one of them was caught by stupid Texas cop.

[txlakeside]

IRAQ has Billions in the bank and we pay IRAQ''ies?

I bet this is a no bid, no receipt type of program!

Americans footing the bill for big oil. IRAQ politicians and what do we have to show for it?

I would vote for a "Democratic" rock or piece of wood in November just so the slime ball repubs are out of there!

[lambor59]

Don''t worry, it''s not Bush''s money, it''s the American tax pay dollars,

50% money go to Lockheed Martin, Haliburton....and many other defense contractors....,

the other 50% go straight to Bush and Cheney bank accounts.

This is the kind of democracy the neo-con wanted to spread beside their cancers.

it''s like Bush put a huge price tag of 20 millions on one dude, and Cheney discover it, thus he deserve the reward, then these 2 SOB would split this huge sum of tax pay dollars.

Americans people are not so stupid, they know these neo-con tricks but can not do anything about it be cause of the so called executive privilege.

[jerr11]

For anyone still wondering what we invaded Iraq over, it apparently was to supply China with oil. Great going Bush.

Posted by PVperson at 01:31 PM : Aug 11, 2008


It was also to remove a secular government (Saddam) and replace it with a Shiite dominated Iranian style Islamic regime.

Nice going Bush!

[pvperson]

"Iraq and China are set to revive a $1.2 billion oil deal that was canceled after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Iraq''s oil ministry said yesterday."

For anyone still wondering what we invaded Iraq over, it apparently was to supply China with oil. Great going Bush.