The cost of freedom appears to be around $8,800,000.00 per dead American put in the pocket of Halliburton.

By God, corporations demand a blood sacrifice, also. It's the American way!

Steve is absolutely right. Great idea!

Every single day during the GOP Convention, Democratic talking heads (if any are allowed on TV) as well as talking points memos from Kerry Headquarters should demand to know "Where's the $8.8 billion?.... Show us the money....How can we trust an administration that took $8.8 billion.... What did Cheney's Halliburton cronies do with $8.8 billion....."

What can Bush-Cheney say? 'Dunno where it is or who has it?'

This is a theme that resonates with voters. They've all seen corruption in their local goverments. Already, many are uneasy about incompetence and corruption in the Bush administration.

This theme needs to be hammered home. Kerry could start by throwing the issue back in Bush's lap: "What did your administration do with Iraq's $8.8 billion? You owe an explanation to the American people as well as the Iraqis."

It's with Bush's military records! Don't you guys know anything?!

Yeah RC, along with the WMD. Too bad it's not funny.

As long as we're talking about hammering the Bush administration on shoddy accounting let's not forget about the well-documented fact that they not only lied about the cost of their medicare changes, they threatened to fire a government employee who wanted to tell the truth. Double-plus ungood.

An interesting commentary on the Oil for Food program.

It's one of the clearest explainations of the "scandal" surrouding the skimming of funds and kickbacks that have been alledged to have plagued the program.

Appropo to the discussion of the CPA's inability to account for $8 billion. Saddam took 6 years to skim $11 billion. The CPA may have managed to lose $8 billion in one year.

Congressional hearings, Jed Babbin, a former Defense Department official and author of a UN-bashing tract called "Inside the Asylum," described the UN as "the handmaiden of terrorism, the errand boy of despots and dictators, and a quagmire that is the antithesis of our policy to preempt terrorist attacks."

Boy at that the F'in truth!

I agree the $8 Billion disappearance is a super talking point for Kerry and Edwards - most voters should hate to waste or lose money - and Hallibuton is overdue for an indictment - Roosevelt declared war profiteering a major crime during World War II.

Remember the uproar from the conservatives earlier this year when they claimed that the UN had mismanaged the Iraqi Oil-for-Food program for years through corruption and ineptitude?

So your saying that it was o.k. for the U.N. to "mismanage" (understatement) the Oil for Food program based on your undertone. Since it seems only conservatives gave a shit that the U.N. did this. I find it interesting that you have more out rage at a few soldiers that beat the crap out of prisoners than the U.N. allowing this to happen and also taking kick backs at the same time. Your in dire need of an outrage adjustment.

I wonder if or when Kerry gets in office your outrage meter will turn to the U.N. where it should have been all along?

"It's with Bush's military records! Don't you guys know anything?!"

Good One RC

Here you go, Spunky. I'll play.

But the simple and largely unreported fact is that there is no UN oil-for-food scandal. What we know from a number of sources, including an oft-cited GAO report [PDF], is that there was a Ba’ath Party oil-for-food swindle, in which Iraqi officials extracted ’overcharges’ and kickbacks from big multinationals, then laundered the loot through a number of foreign banks. And then there’s a rumor that some UN officials were involved.

The media’s coverage of the affair has embraced the conservative view. The reporting’s been awful, with factually tenuous claims widely covered and vital context largely ignored. The ironic result of such skewed reporting is that progressives, not wanting to pile onto the UN, have had no taste for getting to the bottom of this immense corporate scandal.

Interesting link phidipides but I could give you my partisan link to debunk that one but we would be right back at square one.

My thinking on this matter is that it would hurt the liberal view point in that the U.N. is the all mighty entity that should control the world. (Maybe I exaggerated that statement a little but you get my point.) Not to mention if it ever gets reported that France, Germany, Russia & China were getting kick backs from Saddam that would kill your argument that we did not have world support to go to war. I doubt that it will because of politics. Then on the other hand it plays into our court if the U.N. gets their ass handed to them from this scandal. It would prove our point that we could of never got world support when the game was rigged from the beginning.

My thinking on this matter is that it would hurt the liberal view point in that the U.N. is the all mighty entity that should control the world.

The oil/food contracts were controlled by 15 member nations, of which Britain and the United States had a controlling interest, and all completed contracts had to go through the United States and Britain, at our request. When you say these contracts were screwed, we screwed them. When you claim the UN wants to control the world, we are the UN. If the UN gets their ass handed to them over this, we will be getting our fair share just as well.

We are the U.N.?? I think you better rethink that statement. If we control the U.N. like you think we do then we should just shut the doors now.

Your also ignoring the fact that we were not the ones getting paid under the table by Saddam.

All of the news reports I have seen refer to a list published in a Baghdad newspaper tying 270 entities to the scandal. Yes the list includes Russians, French, Syrians. It also includes an adviser to the Pope! And people from a total of 52 countries! The list has not, as far as I know, been substantiated, nor is there yet evidence that being on the list means that one actually was involved in any wrongdoing.

BTW, there have been complaints that Paul Bremer impeded investigation into the Oil for Food program.

I think the slow pace and lack of solid evidence being made available suggests that either the corruption is way overblown, or significant American interests (or at least significant supporters of the Republicans and possibly the Democrats) are involved.

Finally, I don't see any inconsistency with both wanting UN wrongdoing investigated and corrected and also wanting to see Bush administration misdeeds investigated and corrected. I also think that the world will be better off finding a way to make the UN work better then letting cowboys call all the shots.

steve, this is a good post, but by mentioning the lost files of chalabi's hard drive you've given the trolls a reason to ignore the current thievery. the fact that the CPA stole almost as much as saddam in 1/10th the time doesn't seem to impress them. they like having their pockets picked, as long as it's done by their social betters here in the USA.

I find it interesting that you have more out rage at a few soldiers that beat the crap out of prisoners than the U.N. allowing this to happen and also taking kick backs at the same time. Your in dire need of an outrage adjustment.

Rightcoaster,

I think you are a little misinformed. THere is no stated proof that any UN officials took kick backs other than the imfamous "list" that no one seems to be in any hurry to provide to any of the official bodies investigating the charges. What is widely accepted is that the Iraqi's were using various means to skim money from the Oil for Food program. Some say this was overlooked by the UN because some felt it was more important to get what aid they could to the Iraqi people. It seems the US and Britian were only concerned about proscribed or possible dual-use items getting into Iraq as part of the program and not with how much Iraq was paying for the items that it purchased.

Conservatives got themselves all exercised about the fact that the UN could be so incompetent in allowing Hussein to cheat so much and rob the Iraqi people. Now it seems that the CPA was more sloppy with the Iraqi peoples money than the UN was.

That's the issue here.

And BTW, glad to see you have such concern for the civil rights of the 'prisioners' that got the crap beat out of them.

RC, go ahead and post your "partisan link" I hope it has as many links to actually reporting as phidipides does. Coz if all yours are links to Faux and Moon, you lose the argument.

flatulus:

Where's my mention about Chalabi's lost files?