The supposed "war critics" and the supporters of the Iraq occupation find common ground

[NNN0LHI]

http://socialistworker.org/2008/05/12/paying-to-be-occupied


Making Iraq pay to be occupied

Eric Ruder reports on Democratic proposals to shift the burden of paying for reconstructing Iraq onto Iraqis.


SEVERAL U.S. senators are hopping mad about the immense amount of money that the U.S. government has spent to occupy Iraq.

And they have a plan to do something about it: Make Iraqis pay for the U.S. to occupy their country.

"It's obvious that there's a windfall that Iraq is experiencing, and it's at our expense," said Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), on National Public Radio's Marketplace on April 24. "They're generating a surplus at a time when--in large part because of our defense and our work on their behalf--we're generating a deficit."

Nelson and other Democratic senators, who consider themselves critics of the Iraq war, are using such arguments as a line of attack against George W. Bush, essentially claiming that the administration hasn't made enough demands on the Iraqi government and that the U.S. is spending too much on Iraq's reconstruction.

According to this upside-down narrative, the U.S., whose occupation devastated Iraq's infrastructure and economy, is the country's savior, while the Iraqi government is to blame for the lack of electricity and clean water. snip

In mid-April, "Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates whether Baghdad should start paying some U.S. combat costs, and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) raised the possibility that an anticipated Iraqi budget surplus this year could be used to help Afghanistan, whose $700 million in annual revenue represents a small fraction of Iraq's $46.8 billion budget," according to the Associated Press.

[bryant69]

1. Ben Nelson can consider him a critic of the war all he wants

But war enabler is a more accurate description for both him and Lieberman.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[But....]

2. Let me see if I have this right...

hi, we have guns, give us your money.:hurts: Oh yea that's going to make us real popular.

[NNN0LHI]

3. Then we take their money to hire Blackwater mercenaries to rape, torture and murder them

And some Americans still swear they hate us for our freedoms.

Don

[But....]

4. Too true.

:nuke: They talk about how much they respect our men and women in the service, but they get Blackwater to do the jobs(escort, etc..) that should go to the military:rant:

[slipslidingaway]

5. 5 million people displaced, countless dead and wounded

and Nelson has the nerve to say...

"It's obvious that there's a windfall that Iraq is experiencing, and it's at our expense," said Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), on National Public Radio's Marketplace on April 24. "They're generating a surplus at a time when--in large part because of our defense and our work on their behalf--we're generating a deficit."


:(


"...IN TRUTH, Iraq has spent more than the U.S. on reconstruction. According to Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, since 2003, $50.6 billion spent on reconstruction projects has come from Iraq itself, while the U.S. has spent $47.5 billion. "In short, we used more of their money for reconstruction than ours," Cordesman says.

Even setting aside this fact, U.S. lawmakers' claims that the Iraqi government hasn't spent enough--or mismanaged reconstruction funds--are deeply hypocritical..."

[Winterblues]

6. If we could get them to pay for everything would it be robbery

What is the difference between us just taking all their assets or making them give them to us supposedly of their own free will? We are taking everything Iraq ever owned and saying we deserve it..

[NNN0LHI]

7. Even some of the what I though were our most liberal Dems have lost their minds on this

"Far from financing 'its own reconstruction' as the administration promised five years ago, the Iraqi government has left the U.S. to make most of the capital expenditures needed to provide essential services and improve the quality of life of Iraqi citizens," said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.).

The high price of oil, which has perked up the bottom line of Iraq's budget, is fueling the ire of the Democrats. "We Vermonters are paying $3.50 and more for gasoline, and projections are it could go to $4 this summer and even beyond," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). "There's just no way we can justify telling Iraq, when they have a huge surplus from their oil revenues, that they can't pay for some of their own reconstruction."