Truespeak

Hop in. The way-back machine's ready to go. Destination: March 28, 2003.

The White House projected Friday that postwar Iraq will not require long-term U.S. aid, in part because of oil reserves that the Bush administration contends will offset many of the costs of reconstruction.

"The United States is committed to helping Iraq recover from the conflict, but Iraq will not require sustained aid," said a report from President Bush's Office of Management and Budget.

Oh, the good old days. Full of optimism and hope. Now back to the present.

First, the good news: With oil prices at record highs, Iraq is on track to bring in $20 billion or more in oil revenue this year.

That may sound like a lot of petrodollars, especially for a war-torn country with tremendous needs in infrastructure repair and services delivery.

But the bad news is that very little, if any, of that money will actually be used in the country's stalled reconstruction - despite past lofty predictions that oil-rich Iraq would be financially self-sufficient by now.

Dealing with Iraq's insurgency is a chief reason for the gap between oil revenues and improving living conditions. But another reason for the lag is a growing problem of income loss from smuggling and outright theft of the revenues.

Whoops!

How the fuck can we not keep track of $20 billion? Could we be more incompetent? I really don't have anything witty to say about this. I'm completely appalled by our ineptitude. This is yet another example of the Bush administration not having a fucking clue about what they're doing.

God damn! Are we doing those Iraqis a favor or what? We bombed the shit out of their country, we've allow insurgents from all over the world into the country to fight in their streets causing the deaths of over 8,000 Iraqis in the last 10 months and we don't even have the common fucking sense to keep track of $20 billion of their money. Could there be any doubt that we are dealing with the WORST ADMINISTRATION EVER?

Un-fucking-believeable.