Posted on Aug 5, 2008
A congressional report has found that the Iraqi government will soon havea $79-billion surplus, thanks to the record price of oil. It’s a figure
that will surely raise eyebrows as the U.S. shells out an additional
$48 billion for reconstruction, but the situation, like all things
involving billions and bombs, is a lot more complicated.
For one thing, it’s a bit rude to shock and awe
a country, funnel billions in reconstruction funds to corporate cronies
that suck at reconstructing things, and then demand that those ingrates
we’ve occupied start paying their share.
New York Times:
The soaring price of oil will leave the Iraqi government with a
cumulative budget surplus of as much as $79 billion by year’s end an
American federal oversight agency has concluded in an analysis released
on Tuesday.
The unspent windfall, which covers
surpluses from oil sales from 2005 through 2008, appears likely to put
an uncomfortable new focus on the approximately $48 billion in American
taxpayer money devoted to rebuilding Iraq since the American-led
invasion.
Over all, the report from the Government
Accountability Office estimates, Iraqi oil revenue from 2005 through
the end of this year will amount to at least $156 billion. And in an
odd financial twist, large amounts of the surplus money is sitting in
an American bank in New York—nearly $10 billion at the end of 2007,
with more expected this year, when the accountability office estimates
a skyrocketing surplus.
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