Comments on: $23 Billion “Lost” In Iraq

By: David Black

David Black — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:08:34 +0000

“To put this scale of expenditure in perspective, in 2005 the leaders of the G8 countries … made now largely forgotten and broken pledges to donate a comparatively modest £25 billion ($50 billion) towards the elimination of poverty in the world’s poorest and most indebted countries…”

You deny being a liberal and then make this type of pronouncement?

Your denial of your obvious ideological slant is transparent, Christopher.

Only libs let their hearts bleed for have-nots. Real conservatives say “tough luck, buddy,” to have-nots and believe that have-nots descend to that status because of their own ineptitude and lack of intelligence.

By: Christopher Rose

Christopher Rose — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:40:49 +0000

Indeed it is, Pete. It is still a lot of money though and seeing this theft effectively covered up by the US government is nauseating.

Hopefully things will change a bit when President-elect Obama takes office in January. He’s all about change, right?

By: Pete Wilder

Pete Wilder — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:56:35 +0000

Have to say, this seems like small fry compared to the figures that have been bandied about recently in connection with the bank rescue packages

By: David Black

David Black — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:05:45 +0000

In my estimation, what’s truly been wasteful are the hundreds of billions spent in America since the 1960s on attempting to erase crime and poverty among minorities.

After all that $$ spent, there is still an overwhelming crime and poverty rate in America, especially among blacks.

Blacks comprise 12% of the US population but occupy nearly half of the US prison population.

So where the return on that investment of hundreds of billions?

By: Investigation Reveals Efficiency of War Spending

Investigation Reveals Efficiency of War Spending — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:00:12 +0000

[...] For a different view of this issue see this article from Eurocritics Magazine. [...]

By: Christopher Rose

Christopher Rose — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:45:47 +0000

Waste and fraud seem to be pretty much part of the human condition, Dave, so good luck with your campaign to eliminate either.

I would imagine the large frauds perpetrated by a limited number of actors in Iraq is a far easier matter to address than the more fragmented Medicaid issue.

I googled medicaid and got results that indicate the annual budget over recent years has been between $250 and $300 billion, which makes your assertion of annual fraud of $220 billion a little hard to accept. Where did you get that figure from?

By: Dave Nalle

Dave Nalle — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:49:01 +0000

I’d certainly rather our country waste no money and never be the victim of fraud, but as frauds go I’d rate the $220 billion per year in medicaid fraud a much higher priority than the less than $3 billion a year which has been lost during the war.

Dave

By: Christopher Rose

Christopher Rose — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:33:21 +0000

The neocons and their containers is another pretty scandalous use of public money, but that doesn’t mean the story I report above is of no interest.

I think it is more informative to compare the $23 billion to the actual spend so far, $500 billion. On that basis, the amount that has disappeared is a much larger 4.6%; it is also 23 BILLION dollars, which is a huge amount of money to have been effectively stolen by corporate participants in the Iraq affair.

By: Dave Nalle

Dave Nalle — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:59:38 +0000

At the start of the post-invasion period the neocon disciples put in charge of reconstruction were literally given container-loads of US dollars with no accountability on how they should use them. Compared to that absurdity the overpayments to contractors and accounting irregularities seem almost reasonable.

In fact, taking that price tag you suggest of $2.4 trillion, a $23 billion loss in unaccounted funds is less than 1/10 of 1%. Wow. That’s extraordinarily low as far as that kind of error goes. Any company has a larger margin for loss built into its bottom line than that.

Makes me want to rewrite this article as a hymn in praise of the efficiency and fiscal responsibility of those running the war, just to irritate the self-righteous.

Dave