Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2003—New US taxpayer charge: Iraq's foreign debt:
We have been assured the past year that any Iraq reconstruction costs would not be borne by US taxpayers. Supposedly, all such costs would be covered by Iraqi oil revenues.
There's one problem, Iraq's oil revenues amount to about $15 billion per year, not nearly enough to cover reconstruction costs and its debt service, which totals between $200 and 300 billion.
As a result, the US is trying to strong-arm creditor nations, like [cough] France and Germany to forgive Iraq's debts. Suddenly, the Administration's decision to demonize and alienate our allies appears particularly misguided, doesn't it?
But will Europeans and moderate Arabs want to help out, considering that they objected to the U.S.-led war? And if they do agree, what will they want in return? "In exchange for debt relief, France, Germany, Russia and others are very likely to ask for contracts to rebuild the country and sell Iraqi oil, as well as a voice in economic policy," points out Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a former State Department official in the Carter Administration. So far, the billions of dollars in contracts to rebuild Iraq are going to U.S. companies. And at least initially, U.S. officials are planning to make all decisions about Iraq's economy, with help from local advisers. If that doesn't change, debt relief may be a hard sell with the Europeans—and U.S. taxpayers will end up paying the price. |
The Administration and the Chickenhawk Neocons would like to pretend the US can ignore the rest of the world and go at it alone. It can, but at what cost? For starters, $80 billion for a war no one needed (to find WMDs that didn't exist), with a bonus $200-300 billion in Iraqi foreign debt.
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today's Kagro in the Morning show: Some say they're super-awesome at convincing their kids not to touch guns. So, problem solved!
Greg Dworkin rounds up polling news, where Clinton dominates all comers. The Village is unsurprised. Warren's message gets required acknowledgement. Does Huckabee matter? Christie still toast, loses allies, no McCain "comeback" in the cards. Docs want Dr. Oz out. Whither 420 ? The exciting conclusion of "The Free-Market Fantasy," plus a brief peek at the cold roots of libertarianism. A follow-up to the "pattern recognition" discussion sparked by the FBI crime lab news: right or wrong, our brains are hard wired for this.
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