How much cash can a C-130 Hercules cargo plane carry? About $2.4 billion. There’s still official talk about the missing billions that were sent to Iraq in 2004, but the talk won’t go on for much longer. The books are being closed. A special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an office created by Congress, said the missing $6.6 billion may be “the largest theft of funds in national history.”
Theft of such a staggering sum might seem unlikely, but U.S. officials aren’t ruling it out. Some U.S. contractors were accused of siphoning off tens of millions in kickbacks and graft during the post-invasion period, especially in its chaotic early days. But Iraqi officials were viewed as prime offenders.
The U.S. cash airlift was a desperation measure, organized when the Bush administration was eager to restore government services and a shattered economy to give Iraqis confidence that the new order would be a drastic improvement on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Right! And does anyone remember hearing about this on any of the major news outlets? Not on your life. Oh sure, Ed, Rachel and Keith shouted it but who listens to them??
According to Mr. Google, in addition to the L.A. Times, it’s been reported by the BBC, the Ottawa Citizen, Al-Arabiya, Business Insider, The World, International Business Times, The Day, The Daily Mail (UK), Portland Press Herald, The Bible Blog…what more do you want? Aren’t these all leading sources of information in America?
And don’t forget, U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrbacher went to Iraq and told government officials that he expects Iraq to pay back all the money we spent there, as though they begged us to come and disrupt their society for a decade or more. An Iraqi official said that was a stupid idea.
The audacity! When I saw that clip of Rohrbacher in Iraq, asking for pay back for all the damage we’ve done, I thought to myself, “Hmmm, I wonder if that wouldn’t be like a Japanese official coming to the States and asking for reparations for all the planes we shot down during their raid on Pearl Harbor.
Good God! The insanity of his act of actually asking for damages for a war WE started would normally suspend belief, but considering his lack of a moral compass, it shouldn’t really be surprising.