Many zeroes there, compadre. (Note vc' s superlative command of Spanish).
Ten BILLION American clamolies (Note vc' s ability to quip via quaint colloquiallisms)....as GRANT, not a LOAN, to one of the planet' s most oil-rich nations........................?
All this in the wake of the largest deficit in the history of the nation?
Why should we NOT make Iraq pay us back?
We gave France and Germany a break. What did we get from them in return? The old Schwazoolie up the Rumparonie when we really needed their support, that' s what. (The man is a veritable cornicopia of numismatic off-the-cuff terminlogy)
Amen, brother! We were led to believe that oil receipts would finance the rebuilding effort. Low and behold, without explanation, suddenly it is OUR duty. That is absurd! People say we are the richest nation on earth. With a $6 trillion dollar debt, I submit to you we are the poorest!
This is the straw that broke the camels back as far as I' m concerned. I remember Bush telling us that Iraq would be repaying us with oil/oil money before this war started. I am so sick of this crap. We are the poorest country in the world, yet we have to flip another bill.
__________________
Caution - Some posts may contain sarcasim
I wonder how far in debt this country could actually get. 6 trillion dollars is alot of debt and there is no plan to pay it down. Just keep throwing more money out the door. [:@]
If there ever were a case of " Damned if you do and Damned if you don' t" then, this is it.
First, and most importantly, President bush was accused by his critics from the beginning that our reason for going into Iraq was for the oil. Making them pay us back in oil will only lead to more accusations.
Second, Iraq currently has no viable currency. The monetary system is composed of a bunch of temporary slips of paper we have handed out, and WE are guarenteeing is worth " X" amount.
When new money is minted in Iraq, which is supposed to occur in the near future, How will the value of whatever the final name of their currency is be determined. Will it be determined solely by how much WE decide to give them per barrel of oil? If so, what happenes to their currency value when the debt IS paid off.
Also, I' m not sure how much oil it takes to equal ten billion dollars, but I' m sure it' s gonna take awhile to pay it back. What other source of revenue does Iraq have...Will they have to borrow more money from us in order to keep their country running while devoting all their income toward us to pay the FIRST loan?
And last, Iraq does not even have a firm government in place to even AGREE to the terms of this loan.
And last, Iraq does not even have a firm government in place to even AGREE to the terms of this loan.
That, believe it or not, it a minor problem. Arrangements could and should be made. The extent of the refurbishing of that country is unprecedented. We should either recapture some of our investment into their future, or President Bush or someone else should show valid reasons why we should not.
The problem of denominating the currency is also a trivial problem. Use dollars for now, let them call them whatever they wish (clamolies for instance) and peg it to the current price per barrel.
This situation makes about as much sense to me as ignoring the problems at our borders. It is, in my opinion, stupidity heaped upon stupidity. We already have garnered the criticism of the world. Therefore, we should effectively say to any and all, " If you think it should be done for free, then you do it."
VC, I think you are over simplifing a rather complex situation.
On the one hand, you have a world that generally does not keep up with the day to day activities of the United States. They only see the end result.
The end result being...We are the biggest and baddest bunch of people on the face of the earth. We completely destroyed Iraq as it was known, liberated the folks there, re-built it and then turned ' em loose.
History will remember us as the folks who did all that with no strings attached.
We are fighting this war because we were attacked first. As a result, we will ultimately defeat our enemies both at home and abroad. we will do so at a very high price, both in lives, and in finances.
This IS world war three.
And we will win, and the world will be a better place.
On the other hand...It ain' t over.
I suspect that there are a couple of other places that will become news in the next year or so. Syria comes to mind, as does Iran and the Palistinian authority.
It can be argued that they, just like Iraq pose no " direct" threat to us in the straight foward sense. But everybody knows that that is the territory that the enemy comes from. The question must be asked; how do we address that threat?
We defeated the Soviet Union by spending so much money that there was no way for the enemy to keep up. We ultimately bankrupted them into self-destruction.
While I doubt that that particular method will work on an adversary who only has a limited budget, the concept is the same.
It' s kind of like playing poker.
If you go to the table with a thousand dollars, and I go to the table with ten dollars...It does not matter HOW good a player I am, you can out bid me every time. You will ultimately walk away with the pot.
The world is watching, they might not be taking notes...But there can be no doubt that a whole new chapter is being written.
Sun Tzu said something to the effect; Be a gracious winner, feed them, help them build houses, pave their roads and teach them. We will not have to fight them again.
This is funny to me because you got the Dems saying that republics went into Iraq for Oil. Well it seems that its the Dems that want the oil. I agree with bush sending money as a grant because we do not want to overburden the Iraqis with what money they owe to other countries. Lets not forget that the Iraqis are no shape to pay us back now. They are in rebuilding mode over there and need stability over there creating a debt for the Iraqis only creates more problems. There is more important stuff than what Iraq, lets take care of Iraq then worry about what they owe us.
Quote:
This is the straw that broke the camels back as far as I' m concerned. I remember Bush telling us that Iraq would be repaying us with oil/oil money before this war started. I am so sick of this crap. We are the poorest country in the world, yet we have to flip another bill.
Number one we arent the poorest country in world and didnt bush say that it will require sacrifices ,yet you whine and bitch about what crappy economy were in when other people in this world starve to death because their economy is in the crappers and it takes countries like us to help them!
Sun Tzu said something to the effect; Be a gracious winner, feed them, help them build houses, pave their roads and teach them. We will not have to fight them again.
I never trust people whose last names are hard to pronounce.
Sticky problem for President Bush...
) and peg it to the current price per barrel.
]
