New River In Iraq
A new river may form in Iraq soon. A river of cash. I feel it's ludicrous to grant billions of dollars of our money to that country. Of course, I didn't feel we should have gone to war with Iraq in the first place. I think we should spend as much money as necessary to support the current troop deployment there for six more months and then take most (if not all) of them out of there. Station a carrier or three in the Persian Gulf for regional protection and let Iraq begin governing itself as soon as possible. Their oil production should fund their reconstruction. Are our leaders afraid that if we leave now, Saddam will pop out of his foxhole and retake the country?
I heard Ahmed Chalabi on NPR yesterday say that under Saddam, Iraq built $130 billion in debt, and reconstruction funds should be grants, not loans. He said that making the funds loans could be construed as confirmation of the US's desire for Iraqi oil revenues. That's quite a leap. I'm not over there (nor do I want to visit), but are we really to think that the war caused $20 billion in infrastructure damage? It seems to me that our government wants to pump American technology into Iraq in order to increase our influence in the region. I don't agree with that.
Please feel free to comment. I don't profess to know everything there is about the situation. I just know that I don't want my tax dollars going to Iraq.