JimR said:
As for Russia, Germany and France who were in bed with Saddam and raked in Billions from the food for oil program, shame on them.
I did my usual research. I found several articles that referred to "raking in the billions" as you state. However, none of them substantiated the claim. The closest I could find was
this one, by a Fox News correspondent, which refers to the "fat deals" made by Security Council members (presumably France, Germany and Russia).
OK. France, Germany and Russia had "fat deals" with Iraq and were "raking in Billions" from the oil deals. Those contracts were why they didn't support us in our Iraq invasion. So far, so good. That's exactly what I said in my oil theory. In fact, I probably got as much of that from Fox News as I did anywhere else.
The UN ended the Oil for Food program before we invaded. But, presumably, those contracts were still in force, and under the contracts, Iraq owed France, Germany and Russia a bundle of money, even though the program was ended. So far, so good. That's exactly what I said.
So. Let's fast forward a little. We handled the invasion of Iraq on our own, without help from France, Germany and Russia. We booted out Saddam's government and defeated his Republican Guard. We then had effective control of the country, and of whatever oil production facilities that hadn't been destroyed.
What was our plan? Well, here are Paul Wofowitz's own words, each with a reference to the date and place he spoke them, should anyone care to look it up.
Iraq has “got already, I believe, on the order of $15 billion to $20 billion a year in oil exports, which can finally -- might finally be turned to a good use instead of building Saddam's palaces. It has one of the most valuable undeveloped sources of natural resources in the world. And let me emphasize, if we liberate Iraq those resources will belong to the Iraqi people, that they will be able to develop them and borrow against them.”
- Testimony to the U.S. House Budget Committee Feb. 27, 2003
“The oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years. Now, there are a lot of claims on that money, but… We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon.”
- Testimony to the U.S. House Appropriations Committee , March 27, 2003
“I would say that on the whole, things are happening in some respects faster than we expected. One of the most important ones is that we were able to get substantial control over the southern oil fields before Saddam Hussein was able to create the kind of environmental disaster that he was planning to do.”
- Press briefing , March 28, 2003
“One of the keys to getting Iraq up and running as a country is to restore its primary source of revenue: its oil infrastructure. The resolution [1483] envisions the resumption of oil exports, and provides that revenues be deposited in the Development Fund for Iraq , with transparency provided by independent auditors and an international advisory board. Decisions regarding the long-term development of Iraq 's oil resources and its economy will be the responsibility of a stable Iraqi government. The United States is dedicated to ensuring that Iraq 's oil resources remain under Iraqi control. Iraq 's resources--including all of its oil--belong to all of Iraq 's people.”
- Congressional testimony , May 22, 2003
OK, so far, so good. The US has control of Iraq, there was less damage to the oil fields than they expected, the oil and it's revenues belong to the Iraqi people, but those revenues can be used to finance their own reconstruction. Great!
What happened next? Well, we have to go back in time a little, to 2002, before the invasion.
Here is an article from the Guardian in London about Russia, France and Germany, and their involvement in Iraqi oil contracts. To summarize, the article says that those nations were afraid that if the US invaded Iraq, they would be cut out of the lucrative contracts they had with Iraq, and the US would take over the contracts.
Moving back to 2003 after the invasion, the entire situation changed. In
this article and many others, we discover that at the Senate hearing to consider the Bush Administration's request for an additional $87 billion to pay for what is going on in Iraq, the sensational news emerged that $20.3 billion of that amount is allocated, not to pay for the war or for the benefit of U.S. troops, but to build Iraq into a modern country with water and sewer systems, power grids, roads, bridges, schools, post offices, prisons, and even 3,000 housing units.
Some Senators asked the obvious question: Since Iraq has the world's second-largest reserves of oil, why can't it pay for its own reconstruction out of current or future oil revenues. Wasn't that what Wofowitze promised before the war started?
Bush's representative L. Paul Bremer III then let the cat out of the bag. Iraq can't finance its own reconstruction, he said, because it has a debt of $200 billion and therefore can't borrow against future oil profits. Of that $200 billion, more than half is commercial debt owed to a number of countries (mainly France, Russia and Germany), and the rest is war reparations (mainly to Kuwait) owed from the first Gulf War.
Whoa! What just happened! France, Germany and Russia refused to support our efforts in Iraq because they didn't want us to control the oil. They were worried that if we controlled the oil, they would be cut out of the contracts. We went ahead and invaded Iraq without their help. Now, all of a sudden, we not only do NOT have the oil revenues to pay for the refinancing, we find out that the revenues are actually going to France, Germany and Russia! The very countries that refused to help us!
Why should THEY get paid back out of the money that should have been used to rebuild Iraq? Why are WE now SPENDING our mpney to rebuild Iraq while France, Germany and Russia are MAKING money with no risk? How can that be explained?
I can only come up with one possible answer. We're paying them off becuase they threatened to go to war with us if we didn't.
For those who think it's ridiculous that our former allies would consider going to war with us, you really need to take some history lessons. Those nations have not exactly been our friends forever. We fought a cold war with Russia (as the former Soviet Union, but controlled by Russia) in which they declared, "We will bury you!" Germany was our enemy in WWII. And, I can't remember how many wars we fought against France. Friends and enemies switch places all the time, and one of the motivations for such switching is economics.
All we have to go on is the results. Before our invasion of Iraq, if anyone had said that the American taxpayers would be footing the reconstruction bill while France, Germany and Russia were getting their old debts paid off, they would have been completely unbelieved.
People, you have to face facts. The Bush administration has TOTALLY SCREWED UP. Afghanistan is going back to the war lords and is still the source of most of the heroin poppy. Iraq is a total loser. There are more terrorists against us today than there were before our invasion. We have been backed down by 3 other countries that shouldn't have been able to get their way. Most of the so-called coalition in Iraq has quit and gone home. We have spent hundreds of billions of dollars in supplemental budget requests with no earthly idea of where the money has gone. We are deeply in debt, most of it to foreigners. There is no real improvement in Homeland Security; the only reason we haven't been attacked since 9/11 is because Al Queda always seems to take several years to plan for the next attack. We have needless sacrificed over 2,000 of the bravest and best young people in the entire world, because they believed in the "good intentions" of their country. The rich have gotten richer. The middle class is taking the hit. Real income is down. College benefits have gone away. Medicare is taking huge hits, just when many of you are getting to the age you'll need it. The environment is worse and getting even more so. There is virtually NOTHING that is positive about this government. There is only ONE thing they are good at, and that is bull-shitting the American public so a few of you actually still think they were good for something, even though you can't say exactly what it is.
Bah. Harrumph.
