We can pay for Iraqi reconstruction ourselves

[MrDave]

Since we can't sell oil to pay for reconstruction, then I would guess you and I - taxpayer Americana, can foot the bill. That way all the big corporate cronies will still get paid.

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"As things stand, no one can write a single check on Iraq's behalf until the question of its towering debts is sorted out. Not a single barrel of oil can be sold until it is clear who has first claim to the money; no reputable oil company would touch it without clear title."

From:

Analysis: Forgiving Iraq's debts- II

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20030417-120529-5877r.htm


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"What am I to Halliburton? What is Halliburton to me? Misdirected national emotion is turning into a theme of the Bush II years. We're filled with righteous anger at Osama Bin Laden, so we go and pummel Saddam Hussein. We're filled with gratitude toward the soldiers who fought this war and with self-satisfaction as the citizens who will pay for it, so we give a teary hug and a big wet kiss on the mouth to a company practically all of us have nothing to do with. "


From:

Thanks for Nothing
Bush's gift to taxpayers—and Halliburton.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2081640/

[tncorgi]

Ah great...For Iraq's oil wealth, tangled pipes

As US works to restore Iraqi oil production and sales, Russia, France and even the UN hold critical leverage.

By Mark Rice-Oxley | Special to The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0421/p01s04-woiq.html

LONDON – As the dust settles on the fighting in Iraq, a formidable battle is shaping up for control of the country's vast mineral wealth, pitting the coalition powers on one side against France and Russia on the other, with the Iraqis themselves caught in the middle.
At stake is Iraq's immense oil potential. Its proven reserves are second only in size to Saudi Arabia's, and pipelines, moreover, run north through Turkey as well as south through the Gulf - a crucial point of diversification.

Conventional prewar wisdom predicted that the victorious US forces would quickly turn Iraq into one super-giant oil well that could feed its voracious energy-importing needs.

But the reality is proving somewhat more complex, and it is becoming clear that the US administration will have to involve the international community, not to mention the Iraqis themselves, in rehabilitating Iraqi oil.

"The US administration doesn't have the legitimacy to begin exporting oil," says Rusa Hubari, a Middle East expert with the Energy Intelligence Group. "No one will buy oil at the moment because they ask: Under what law is it functioning?



.....This diplomatic standoff, known as the "Big Debate," could end up forcing Iraqis to go even longer without necessities - just because these outside powers have issues with each other that don't even relate to Iraq.

The UN has authority over Iraq's oil exports based on sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. A key condition of lifting those sanctions is that Iraq be free of weapons of mass destruction. The United States is hunting for those weapons now and could welcome UN weapons inspectors to join it. That might be the first step in an eventual compromise.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0418/p10s03-comv.html