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[Juancole.com] Informed Comment: Since the US Coalition Provisional Authority essentially stole $9 billion from Iraq to run itself and the country the first year, basically the $9 billion actually spent on reconstruction by the US was little more than a repayment of the money taken (quite illegally under the law of Occupation), and the actual US investment in Iraq is zero. While the American public is being taxed to pay a bill for Iraq mounting toward $1 trillion (and Americans are nowadays staring the tax man in the face), that appears to go mostly to finance continued search and destroy missions that are probably mostly failures as counter insurgency.
[Gns.gannettonline.com] Furthermore: A blog by Gannett News Service Political Editor Chuck ...: Pollster Andy Kohut says Iraq is the central issue in this fall's campaigns, and there is no doubt Republicans are having a hard time with the headlines and blog commentary about the war. Even Democrats inclined to support stay-the-course are increasingly harsh on how the Bush administration has fought the war. Ex-GOP activist-turned-Democratic Lead-ership Council centrist Marshall Wittmann in Bull Moose explores the dilemma of stay-the-course Democrats.
[Blog.thedemocraticdaily.com] The Democratic Daily » Blog Archive » Senate Democrats Want Vote ...: There are approximately 129,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and the military death toll since the 2003 invasion reached 2,500 last week. Administration officials have said they would like to withdraw some troops before November’s midterm if conditions on the ground permit it, which could ease pressure on Republicans in their battle to retain control of Congress.
[Dailywarnews.blogspot.com] Today in Iraq: The study also notes that Defense Department expenditures that were not directly appropriated for Iraq have grown by more than 5 percent since the war began. But a portion of that increase has been spent "on support for the war in Iraq, including significantly higher recruitment costs, such as nearly doubling the number of recruiters, paying recruitment bonuses of up to $40,000 for new enlistees and paying special bonuses and other benefits, up to $150,000 for current Special Forces troops that re-enlist." "Another cost to the government," the study says, "is the interest on the money that it has borrowed to finance the war." Among the things taken into account by the study are some of the difficult-to-quantify but very real costs inflicted by the war on the American economy and society, such as the effect of the war on oil prices, and the economic loss that results from the many thousands of Americans wounded and killed in the war.
[Msnbc.msn.com] House rejects Iraq withdrawal deadline - Politics - MSNBC.com: A day after the Senate took the same position against troop withdrawal, .Dems: ”˜Failed policy’ in Iraq Democrats denounced the GOP-orchestrated debate .
Reflected tags on Technorati: Blog, Iran, War, Technorati Favorites: Laura Curtis, Iraq Reviews
