The principle motivator for the USA attacking Iraq, I feel, was to put taxpayer dollars into the pockets of rich Americans. Rich Republicans. The Bush regime assumed they’d recover the money — somehow — from Iraqi oil.
But they had no incentive at all to put US taxpayer dollars into the pockets of rich Iraquis. This is just the Mother of all Blunders.
From 60 Minutes:
(CBS) This segment was originally broadcast on Oct. 22, 2006. It was updated on June 14, 2007.
President Bush says the United States can’t leave Iraq until the country can govern and defend itself. Right now a number of inconvenient facts suggest it can do neither. Everyone knows about the chaotic security situation, but less has been reported about the rampant corruption that has infected a succession of Iraqi governments. In a story that first aired in Oct. 2006, Iraqi investigators told 60 Minutes that at least half a billion dollars that was supposed to equip the new Iraqi military was stolen by the very people the U.S. had entrusted to run it.
As correspondent Steve Kroft reports, it has been called one of the biggest thefts in history, the mother of all heists, and it happened right under the noses of U.S. advisors. But neither the United States nor its allies have shown much of an appetite for pursuing it.
related post – BBC – who stole the Baghdad billions?
Rick McCharles 