Govt Report: We Wasted a Ton of Money in Iraq
Source: AP / TalkingPointsMemo.com
Ten years and $60 billion in American taxpayer funds later, Iraq is still so unstable and broken that even its leaders question whether U.S. efforts to rebuild the war-torn nation were worth the cost. In his final report to Congress, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen’s conclusion was all too clear: Since the invasion a decade ago this month, the U.S. has spent too much money in Iraq for too few results.
The reconstruction effort “grew to a size much larger than was ever anticipated,” Bowen told The Associated Press in a preview of his last audit of U.S. funds spent in Iraq, to be released Wednesday. “Not enough was accomplished for the size of the funds expended.” In interviews with Bowen, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the U.S. funding “could have brought great change in Iraq” but fell short too often. “There was misspending of money,” said al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim whose sect makes up about 60 percent of Iraq’s population.
Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, the country’s top Sunni Muslim official, told auditors that the rebuilding efforts “had unfavorable outcomes in general.” “You think if you throw money at a problem, you can fix it,” Kurdish government official Qubad Talabani, son of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, told auditors. “It was just not strategic thinking.”
The abysmal Iraq results forecast what could happen in Afghanistan, where U.S. taxpayers have so far spent $90 billion in reconstruction projects during a 12-year military campaign that, for the most part, ends in 2014.
<snip>
Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/report-too-much-money-spent-in-iraq-for-too-few-results.php?ref=fpa
I'm SHOCKED! SHOCKED I tells'yah!
= new reply since forum marked as read
on edit: It's less than 4 minutes long & one of the best vids I've seen. Make it go viral.
What eats up 53¢ of every tax dollar?
The constant war, destruction & aggression as a country. You can see it in the way our culture has devolved, so much violence, bullying & admiration for bad behavior.
Thanks for watching & welcome to DU!
The "To Figure This Out, You Had To Do a Freaking STUDY?" category.
rocktivity
That comment is directed at the article, not you, meegbear
Here at DU, we knew a concocted war of choice against Iraq would enrich the few, impoverish the many and devastate an innocent nation that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 and that the bully US had already picked on in 1991!
If only an equally dreadful karma could be wreaked on those who perpetrated this travesty!
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/report-too-much-money-spent-in-iraq-for-too-few-results.php?ref=fpa
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ten years and $60 billion in American taxpayer funds later, Iraq is still so unstable and broken that even its leaders question whether U.S. efforts to rebuild the war-torn nation were worth the cost.
A $100 bill weighs about one gram. $60 billion in $100 bills would be 600,000,000 bills, which would weigh 600,000,000 grams, or 600 tonnes ("metric tons"
, which equals about 661 tons of the 2,000 pound variety. The thread title, which is also the title of the referenced article, is therefore an understatement by a factor of 661. We didn't waste a ton of money, we wasted 661 tons of money.
Incidentally, at 0.0043 inches of thickness per bill, this amounts to a stack of $100 bills over 40 miles high.
people like me are saying "no shit Sherlock, we tried to fucking tell you that!"
And Medicare, too! 
But seriously...since WWII, what country has benefited from our meddling? 
Raise your hand if you'rea dem who became active years ago because you already knew this.
