December 9, 2003

CHEAP FREEDOM:

Iraq Could Produce Another Enron (Nomi Prins, 02 December 2003, Newsday)

Scrounging up money for anything Iraq-related has been the Bush administration's most consistent economic policy. And it's been ridiculously easy ever since Congress blessed the first "emergency package" defense budget addendum in April.

Fast forward eight months, and the latest $87-billion injection that went predominantly into the Iraq black hole puts the total sum of "liberation and reconstruction" funds at more than a quarter- trillion dollars, roughly the combined annual revenue of IBM and General Electric.


this raises, though unintentionally, a serious question: if we have achieved levels of power where we can liberate and rebuild two nations--one a major military state--with practically no casualties and at a cost of only what two corporations make a year, might we be under some increased moral obligation to use such power in such a manner? Is it possible any longer to justify leaving the Castros, Mugabes, Chavezs, and Kim Jong-ils of the world in place when they are so easily and cheaply dealt with?

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 9, 2003 11:44 AM
Comments

Life is cheap?

Posted by: Harry Eagar at December 9, 2003 2:47 PM

Ah, if the left would only investigate the financial (and labor) practices of the New York Times, Ralph Nader and his organization, the NEA, the public worker's unions, and so on.

Posted by: jim hamlen at December 9, 2003 2:53 PM

I thought that the bulk of the $87 billion went to the U.S. military. I thought that somewhere around $20 billion went to rebuilding Iraq. Am I incorrect?

Posted by: pchuck at December 9, 2003 3:49 PM

Harry:

Very--we expend it freely.

Posted by: oj at December 9, 2003 4:33 PM

Pchuck, I think you're right. And part of that money goes to Afghanistan, too. Left partisans are always quoting the $87 billion as if it all goes to Iraq reconstruction, which it does not.

Posted by: PapayaSF at December 9, 2003 5:18 PM

$87BN sounds like a lot until you realize it isn't much more than the budgets for Education, EPA, etc. And as noted above most went to the military with about $20BN for reconstruction (remember the flap over whether the $20BN would be grants or loans?)

Posted by: AWW at December 9, 2003 10:50 PM

I hope we get something for it, then.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at December 10, 2003 11:46 PM
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