Drudge Report: US wasted billions in rebuilding Iraq

[FrankRep]

Drudge Report


AP IMPACT: US wasted billions in rebuilding Iraq


Associated Press
Aug 29, 2010

A $40 million prison sits in the desert north of Baghdad, empty. A $165 million children's hospital goes unused in the south. A $100 million waste water treatment system in Fallujah has cost three times more than projected, yet sewage still runs through the streets

As the U.S. draws down in Iraq, it is leaving behind hundreds of abandoned or incomplete projects. More than $5 billion in American taxpayer funds has been wasted — more than 10 percent of the some $50 billion the U.S. has spent on reconstruction in Iraq, according to audits from a U.S. watchdog agency.

That amount is likely an underestimate, based on an analysis of more than 300 reports by auditors with the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. And it does not take into account security costs, which have run almost 17 percent for some projects.

...

Full Story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100829/...ruction_legacy

[Sola_Fide]

We need to beat it into the heads of fiscal conservatives that you cant be pro war and concerned about fiscal issues at the same time.

[FSP-Rebel]

Yep, we pay the tab and then realize the f-up. Weird thing is, I'm pretty sure Drudge had his nose to the grindstone while pushing for the war to begin with.

[Knightskye]

"Hmm. Maybe wasteful spending can exist in any government expenditure."

Come on, V-8 moment!

[surf]

file this one with the others in the "no $#@!" file

[awake]

Wasted? That was stimulus.

[Romulus]

Yep, we pay the tab and then realize the f-up. Weird thing is, I'm pretty sure Drudge had his nose to the grindstone while pushing for the war to begin with.

Lets give him credit where its due though.. people wake up sooner or later, maybe his is the case of later.

The documentary "New American Century" really exposes all the waste in the Iraq war. Its like it was the goal of the whole mission. Waste as much as you could for whatever reason.

[YumYum]

"People shouldn't be concerned with this. The real issue is all those lazy Americans that are on food stamps!!"

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

Lets give him credit where its due though.. people wake up sooner or later, maybe his is the case of later.

The documentary "New American Century" really exposes all the waste in the Iraq war. Its like it was the goal of the whole mission. Waste as much as you could for whatever reason.

Everything the Government does is wasteful. It has no inherent interest not to waste. It gets money regardless. Besides, this wasn't for any reason, it was specifically to line the pockets of those politically connected. This is nothing new. It's why many states in the mid 19th century explicitly forbade public works (e.g. roads, highways, canals, etc.), in their Constitutions. Though ultimately that didn't work either as you can see, but at least the people knew back then, that $#@! was the redistribution of stolen money to the connected. If you take a step back and analyze what Government actually is, it fits the definition of a racket perfectly.

If you thought that was bad enough, the State doesn't even have your interests. Anthony de Jasay does a remarkable job outlining this with a splendid coherence in his marvelous work -- The State.

http://www.econlib.org/library/LFBoo...y/jsyStt0.html

....with the passage of time and the growth of the state relative to civil society, they are becoming steadily more important. Is it, however, sufficient to treat them only from the point of view of the subject, what he needs, wants, can and ought to do? Would not our understanding become more complete if we could also see them as they might look from the state's point of view?

.....Nation states are in a state of nature and show no inclination to pool sovereignty in a superstate. Yet contrary to what Hobbes is usually taken to have implied, most of them manage to avoid war a good deal of the time. They even cooperate in armed peace, most conspicuously and bravely in international trade, investment and lending, all in the face of sovereign risk. Social contract theory would predict that in these areas, there will be international thieving, default, confiscation and beggar-my-neighbour behaviour, and contracts will be worthless bits of paper. In effect, despite the lack of a superstate to enforce contracts across national jurisdictions, international cooperation is not breaking down. If anything, there is some movement the other way. International relations tend to cast doubt on the standard view of people in the state of nature as myopic simpletons clad in animal skins clubbing each other on the head. Instead, there is some reason to hold that the more civilization advances, the more viable becomes the state of nature. The fearfulness of advanced armaments may yet prove to be a more potent enforcer of abstinence from war, saving people from a "nasty, brutish and short life," than were such historic super-states as Rome, the Carolingian or the British Empire, though it may be too soon to tell.