In the last few weeks, the Administration has been pushing hard to show how sequestration has produced dire consequences even though it involved only $85 billion (including the implausible claim that thousands of illegal aliens had to be released due to the cuts). For some of us who have complained about the Administration giving billions to Israel and other countries, it was a hard sell even if you do not agree with sequestration. Now a report has come out showing, as has been discussed for years on this blog and other sites, most of the $60 billion given to Iraq in the last ten years was wasted or lost to open corruption. The long documented waste of billions did not cause either the Bush or Obama Administration (or Congress) to take meaningful steps to stop the funding or, better yet, pull out of the country.
In his final report to Congress, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen’s findings show open theft and waste that continued without correction from U.S. officials. The corruption enriched Iraqi leaders and left a string of unfinished buildings and projects across the country. Yet, officials continued to pour money into reconstruction despite media reports showing that the money was evaporating into the bank accounts of corrupt officials or doomed projects. There is no record of a single official being disciplined for this waste.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the U.S. funding was simply a case of “misspending of money.”
In total, U.S. taxpayers have so far spent $90 billion in reconstruction projects during a 12-year military campaign — over the amount now viewed as a dire shortfall due to sequestration. Both the Bush and Obama administration were long accused of disregarding the accounts of waste and corruption as billions gushed out of the treasury at a time of severe economic problems in the U.S.
When both military and diplomatic costs are considered, the U.S. has spent at least $767 billion since the American-led invasion. That is almost $700 billion spent on a lie over WMDs and a war continued by both Bush and Obama due to a lack of political courage to end it. Polls show a majority of Iraqis hate the U.S.
Sen. Susan Collins, a member of the Senate committee that oversees U.S. funding, has expressed dismay at the report as if this is the first time she has heard of these problems. It has been years of constant media reports of corruption and waste. Yet, Collins and her colleagues have continued to appropriate billions in aid while cutting programs for U.S. citizens.
Both Congress and the White House (both Bush and Obama) deserve blame for this waste and yet no one seems particularly angry with our leaders. It is a curious state of affairs in a representative democracy. Citizens appear in an entirely passive state — disconnected from the failures and abuses of their government from waste to kill lists to torture.
Source: CBS
http://deadlinelive.info/2011/04/26/charley-reeses-final-column-orlando-sentinel-545-vs-300000000-people/
We all need to read Charley Reese’s take on taxes.
Since USA spent bazillions and 7,000 dead and 400,000 wounded why aren’t they sending us money and selling us oil for $10 a barrel for the liberation from their slime bag gangster dictatorship.
We, the American people, need to look at the federal deficit, and the budget (it is all online). If you look at both of these (according to a FoxBusinessNews economist-giving credit where credit is due), we, American people, shelled out between trillions of dollars to foreign nations, organizations, and companies in the form of loans (loans that will never be paid back to us)and/or tax subsidies, credits, etc. And every year, we add on to our $16.8 trillion deficit, by giving out trillions of our tax paying dollars to other nations AND organizations, including to the UN, WHO, NATO, Israel, etc. Remember, the US Government has an average revenue of more than $12-$14 trillion in taxes EVERY YEAR. And we spend, on average, more than $15-$16 trillion every year, constantly increasing our deficit. Do we really need to keep raising our taxes? Or should we start handing the ax to some of these programs or projects benefiting other countries at our expense?
Tom Dispatch / By Peter Van Buren
Mission Unaccomplished: Iraq War Worst Mistake in U.S. History
Ten years ago, Bush made disastrous foreign policy decision that we will pay for for a long, long time.
March 7, 2013
Excerpt:
http://www.alternet.org/mission-unaccomplished-iraq-war-worst-mistake-us-history?akid=10154.147321.mwvYPe&rd=1&src=newsletter805801&t=7&paging=off
“In the bigger picture, the world is also a far more dangerous place than it was in 2003. Indeed, for the State Department, which sent me to Iraq to witness the follies of empire, the world has become ever more daunting. In 2003, at that infamous “mission accomplished” moment, only Afghanistan was on the list of overseas embassies that were considered “extreme danger posts.” Soon enough, however, Iraq and Pakistan were added. Today, Yemen and Libya, once boring but secure outposts for State’s officials, now fall into the same category.
Other places once considered safe for diplomats and their families such as Syriaand Mali have been evacuated and have no American diplomatic presence at all. Even sleepy Tunisia, once calm enough that the State Department had its Arabic language school there, is now on reduced staff with no diplomatic family members resident. Egypt teeters.
The Iranian leadership watched carefully as the American imperial version of Iraq collapsed, concluded that Washington was a paper tiger, backed away from initial offers to talk over contested issues, and instead (at least for a while) doubled-down on achieving nuclear breakout capacity, aided by the past work of that same A.Q. Khan network. North Korea, another A.Q. Khan beneficiary, followed the same pivot ever farther from Washington, while it became a genuine nuclear power. Its neighbor China pursued its own path ofeconomic dominance, while helping to “pay” for the Iraq War by becoming thenumber-one holder of U.S. debt among foreign governments. It now owns more than 21% of the U.S. debt held overseas.
And don’t put away the joke book just yet. Subbing as apologist-in-chief for an absent George W. Bush and the top officials of his administration on this 10th anniversary, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently reminded us that there is more on the horizon. Conceding that he had “long since given up trying to persuade people Iraq was the right decision,” Blair added that new crises are looming. “You’ve got one in Syria right now, you’ve got one in Iran to come,” he said. “We are in the middle of this struggle, it is going to take a generation, it is going to be very arduous and difficult. But I think we are making a mistake, a profound error, if we think we can stay out of that struggle.”
Think of his comment as a warning. Having somehow turned much of Islam into a foe, Washington has essentially assured itself of never-ending crises that it stands no chance whatsoever of winning. In this sense, Iraq was not an aberration, but the historic zenith and nadir for a way of thinking that is only now slowing waning. For decades to come, the U.S. will have a big enough military to ensure that our decline is slow, bloody, ugly, and reluctant, if inevitable. One day, however, even the drones will have to land.
And so, happy 10th anniversary, Iraq War! A decade after the invasion, a chaotic and unstable Middle East is the unfinished legacy of our invasion. I guess the joke is on us after all, though no one is laughing.”
Reblogged this on .
Had there be no war no money would have been needed to give for people to misuse. Misusing money to help people is not good War is not good. War teaches people to not be good. Stop waring so people will be good. Do good God sees it. Do bad God sees that too. What matters is to do good.
This should be no surprise to anyone who is answering in good faith. There were reports of billions in cash on pallets lost in Iraq years ago with no accountability. But we lost much more than 60 billions. We lost the lives of our service men and women,, including those that were greivously injured in a war that was started on lies.
Any money stolen from people and used to support immoral wars and political power grabs is always lost. Sadly, people are more interested in a few billion when the problem is measured in trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives.
AY, It’s our grandkids money they’re printing. Not just for this horseshit, unfortunately.
Throw other peoples’ money at it and declare you are doing something. That’s the ticket here.
In the propaganda campaign leading up to the terrorist invasion of Iraq in 2003, all the finger pointing was aimed at the scapegoat, Saddam Hussein. It was misdirection intended to keep people away from examination of the actions of US oil companies. US companies profitted heavily from illegal trading in Iraqi oil.
In the same way, the propaganda campaign in this story is aimed at blaming Iraqis for the graft and corruption. In reality, the majority of the misuse of money in Iraq was by war profiteering corporations (like KBR and their no-bid contracts).
Once again, this is about misdirection, about shifting blame onto those who are easy and convenient scapegoats rather than the real perpetrators.
Heck it’s only money…. More can be printed…. The best Ponzi scheme going….
our government p*sses away 85 billion and more every year. This sequestration BS is a joke.
If you have $3,500,000 dollars the sequestration would amount to about $82,000. Are you going to tell me the sky is going to fall if you cannot spend $80k out of 3.5 million? If you cannot figure out a way to cut less than 2.5% from a budget, you have no business running a wh*rehouse let alone a country.
Swindled and those with clout got theirs. The rest of us are like that guy in the New Mexico County jail … looking for a pair of pliers to pull our rotten tooth.
Reblogged this on euzicasa and commented:
Q: Wasted, or swindled?
We’ve all heard about the suitcases and trunks filled with $100 bills. Steal $10 3 times, you get a life sentence. Steal milk from a million babies unlucky in the parent lottery, burn through hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, you get private jets, speaking engagements, directorships on major boards.
Currently, I believe there is a hydroelectric project originating with the Soviets, re-started by the foolhardy Americans, and located in friendly Anbar province, the USA is still pouring money into. Anbar is strongly Sunni territory. Power lines, should this generator station ever produce a single kilowatt, would last all of about 24 hours before being blown up.
well duh…
I could argue that all of it was wasted.
But most of it made its way into those banks that Eric Holder says are too big to prosecute.
The militarist nation that can invade and occupy nations at will, can’t handle a bank or two.
I think the reality is more likely to be that he can not go against his bosses, the Epigovernment.
Neither could the previous administration.
I don’t think the problem with sequestration was the amount. The problem was that it took money from programs already failing to meet the need because of lack or resources while pretending that there is no waste in DoD.
All money pizzed away in Iraq is wasted, always has been, always will be. Zero ROI. Z.E.R.O. That the so-called wise men of Washington are incapable of admitting that and are more than willing to continue to use support for our giant cockup as a demonstration of patriotism means we are going to burn a whole heck of a lot more before we are done.