Iraq has huge surplus
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| Thu, 08-07-2008 - 12:45am |
I saw this in my local paper today and thought it was an interesting article. I'm only posting some parts, but check out the link for the entire article. It's not very long but a good read.
The Iraqi government could end the year with as much as a $79 billion budget surplus as ever-increasing oil revenues pile on top of leftover income the Iraqis still haven't spent on their national rebuilding effort, congressional auditors say.
A report by the Government Accountability Office made public Tuesday prompted renewed calls from senators that Baghdad pay more of the bill for its own reconstruction, which has been heavily supported with U.S. funds.
The projected Iraq surplus, including unspent money from 2005 through 2008, has been building because of rising world oil prices, increasing Iraqi oil production, the government's inability to execute budgets for spending its money and persistent violence in the country, the GAO said.
"The Iraqi government now has tens of billions of dollars at its disposal to fund large-scale reconstruction projects," Levin said in a statement. "It is inexcusable for U.S. taxpayers to continue to foot the bill for projects the Iraqis are fully capable of funding themselves."
The report also estimated that this year Iraq could generate $67 billion to $79 billion in oil sales. Other U.S. officials previously had said they expected the oil windfall to be about $70 billion.
"This substantial increase in revenues offers the Iraqi government the potential to better finance its own security and economic needs," the GAO said.
Since 2005, the United States has funded a number of efforts to teach civilian and security ministries how to effectively execute their budgets.
The efforts included programs to advise and help Iraqi government employees develop the skills to plan programs and to effectively deliver government services such as electricity, water and security.
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*my comment*
I thought I read this in the same article, but maybe it was another recent one, but what I read was that even with this surplus and all the extra money they're making in oil, we've paid over $72 billion toward rebuilding while they've paid around $28 billion.

I dunno exactly how I feel about this. I think the *right* thing for us to do is to clean up our mess, which includes paying for it. I'm no history major but I believe after WWI, the allies forced Germany to pay reparations for the War and it bankrupted the country, which allowed Hitler to rise to power. By WWII, the allies agreed to help the countries devastated by the war in part from the lessons learned following WWI. For a lack of better word, it's good sportsmanship for the victor to help loser.
While I understand the enormous profits Iraq makes from it's oil industry makes it a bit harder to swallow doing the right thing, I don't entirely understand the opposition to us helping to repair a country we (in part) destroyed. ESPECIALLY if one feels we never should have been there in the first place, and that by us going there and liberating Iraq from it's dictator we've made ourselves look like the school yard bully, I surely don't understand why that same person would think we wouldn't owe it to that "victimized" country to help them out in the aftermath.
I feel very similarly. On one hand I don't think we should have been there in the first place, so I think we owe it to them to clean it up. But on the other hand they are raking in the dough while we, the average people, are going broke trying to keep up with the gas prices that are causing this surplus.
So yeah, it's a confusing place to be for me.