Loaded Spooks in Iraq
Loaded spooks? Yes, and I’m not referring to drunk undercover operatives. I’m referring to the imaginary entities that are making your tax dollars disappear into thin Iraqi air.
$622 Billion
On Tuesday, chickenhawk Senator Joe Lieberman stumped for a “war on terrorism tax.” Lieberman said the tax would help pay for $622 billion going to the Pentagon next fiscal year, assuming President Bush’s proposed budget is passed.
It’s amazing how quick Americans will hand over $622 billion dollars, isn’t it? Do we really have any idea how much cash that is?
Just trying to put the number in perspective is almost impossible. To make it easier, try to get your mind around a smaller amount, like 1/138 of the total: $4.5 billion.
$15 million, in Benjamin Franklin $100 bills, would look like the stack pictured to the left. That’s enough cash to build three elementary schools at $5 million each. Now, add 299 more stacks of cash just like that one, and you’d have $4.5 billion.
Missing: 363 Tons of Cash
It turns out that $4.5 billion is the amount of cash the Federal Reserve flew into Baghdad in 2003 and 2004. Bills weighing 363 tons were loaded onto giant pallets, placed aboard military planes, and delivered into a war zone. Cash delivered to a war zone? How stupid is that? And where did our 363 tons of cash go?
Here’s a clue: Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction, reported in January of 2005 that $8.8 billion given to the new Iraqi government was unaccounted for. Poof. Vanished into thin air.
Very Wealthy Ghosts
Fast forward to today, when Paul Bremer, the former Iraq civil administrator, told Congress he was aware nonexistent “ghost employees” were on America’s payroll when all that money disappeared. Asked whether any of the cash had wound up in the hands of insurgents, Bremer said he didn’t know.
To explain the lack of oversight, Bremer used the excuse of bad intelligence. He said if intelligence had been focused more on Iraq’s infrastructure, we might have known how bad the economy had grown under Saddam. Instead most intelligence resources were focused on Weapons of Mass Destruction. And they still got THAT wrong. So, what the heck makes Bremer think more intelligence would have correctly accessed the state of Iraq’s economy?
Anyway, try to keep that missing $8.8 billion in mind when war junkies like Lieberman insist the Pentagon needs more of your money, when what the Pentagon really needs is wisdom to spend the money it already has.
Read More: iraq, iraq war, ghost employees, Pentagon, Paul Bremer, Stuart Bowen, Joe Lieberman
Related Articles
Why can they find a minor mistake on my tax return for $30 but they can’t find billions.
Because the IRS can’t look in the Swiss bank account where Bremer told the Iraqi ministry to deposit his kickbacks???
Wait! Hasn’t George W. Bush said that we the American People are already sacrificing for this war? How we are, I haven’t figured out yet, but he has said that. So why do I want to sacrifice more of my money for a new War on Terrorism Tax that will never end? The answer: I don’t!
Brent: Yeah, we just got rid of the telephone tax to fund the Spanish American War, over a hundred years after the war was over. I don’t think we need another war tax so soon either.