Senators press for billions for Iraq to be a loan / Bush, GOP leadership want taxpayers to pay for rebuilding (SFgate.com, Senators from both parties are pushing the idea of turning a big chunk of the $20 billion President Bush wants for the next phase of rebuilding Iraq into a loan, but face opposition from the administration and Congress' Republican leadership. The $20 billion is part of the $87 billion package that Bush wants Congress to quickly approve to pay for continued U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iraqi reconstruction and for improved security. It seems sure that Bush will get the money, perhaps even more, because few members of Congress want to be seen as abandoning the 120,000 service personnel occupying Iraq under tough conditions.
You have GOT to be kidding. Congress seriously wants to a country which we bombed the infrastructure out of to pay for the privilege of being rebuilt? They want a country already saddled with reparations and other debts that it will almost certainly never be able to repay to take on a loan for which it was not responsible?
What the hell is WRONG with those people?
It's not just Democrats. Some conservatives, suffering from sticker shock over Bush's added budget request, also like the idea. "I believe oil in Iraq ought to pay for the reconstruction of Iraq, not the American taxpayer," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., as he introduced his plan to create an Iraqi reconstruction finance authority at the Appropriations Committee meeting.
You know, that would be reasonable if Iraq, or even the people currently in charge of what remains of the country, had actually been responsible for the destruction of the country. But guess what? It wasn't their bombs, and it wasn't their artillery. Moreover, if you want to pull this out to the extreme, it wasn't even their fault that the surviving infrastructure was in such rotten shape to begin with, unless you want them to pay for not having revolted against Saddam Hussein in the first place. (And with the extremely prominent examples of the last rebellion resulting in thousands dead, promises of assistance and aid betrayed, and Saddam firmly in place afterward, what sane person would even try? Why would they try?)
I swear, sometimes I think that every person in Congress needs a good bitchslappin'. (Actually, I think that most of them need daily bitchslappin' most of the time, but you'd need to have some sort of mechanical bitchslapper, because otherwise your hands would get tired and sore, and slapping 500-odd idiots -- even those particular idiots -- just isn't worth that.)
Posted by iain at October 01, 2003 02:15 PMComments
You're so right on this subject. I just wrote about the same thing on my blog. It's so cruel to just slap the Iraqis with another $20 billion "loan" on top of the $200+ billion they already owe France and Russia. it may suck, but we gotta help.
Posted by Shane at October 1, 2003 08:12 PM
