Finally, someone is at least asking the question

[gh]

Senators: Where is Iraq's oil money going? - CNN.com
I still believe we should be taxing their oil to pay for our "freeing" their country but arent they second richest oil country in the world? Where is the money?

[the_dude]

finally. i thought that was promised from the start - that oil revenues would pay for reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure. interested to see what the response will be.

[heliodorus04]

More info on the financials of Iraq. Money quote:

WASHINGTON - Iraq isn't spending much of its own money, despite soaring oil revenues that are pushing the country toward a massive budget surplus, auditors told Congress on Tuesday

Link:
Auditors: Iraq faces budget surplus - Yahoo! News

[blutzski]

You guys are just being stupid.

If the Iraqis spend their own money, then they'll want to have a say in where the money goes and it will be harder for our government to tranfer our tax dollars to the US corporatocracy. Don't you want to support good old corporations like Halliburton? Geez.

[cayo 2]

Saddam stole 1.7 billion in apx.9 years from the oil for food program,J.Paul Bremmer can't account for 1.5 billion from it in less than a year[ not to mention 8.7 billion in reconstruction money].I think Blutski is correct.

yeah they have the second most proven reserves in easily extractable form.Canada and Venezuela have masive tar sands and ultra heavy[not the right term] oil.If the long term price stay high enough then the Saudi's control of OPEC /WORLD PRICES is broken,but if Canada or VZ starts moving to bring the heavier stuff into supply then S A will flood the market to stop them and thier investment will be wasted,there are greater rerves now than ever.Peak oil is bs.
]

[gh]

LOL, what was I thinking?

[mvhyde]

Where is all the oil and money the Liberals said we were stealing? Apparently we're not very good thieves now, are we?

I wonder what Air America has to say about that? #^%$^&$ Tards...

[Livingston]

The neo-cons wanted to privatize the Iraqi oil fields and increase production to bust the OPEC cartel. I think Bremmer actually wrote it into one of his 100 laws before he left.

Big Oil said: "Whoa, we like this low production/high price thing we got going here. You aren't going to privatize shit. Just keep the hornets nest stirred and keep blowing things up." Even though Wolfowitz said under oath, "the oil will pay for the invasion/occupation", all the experts dissagreed (probably purjured himself). If Iraq started pumping more than its quota, Saudi Arabia would flood the market and the price would plummet, starving everyone needing the oil income. Saudi's have reserves of cash and oil to crash the market for years now thanks to Bush/Cheney's war.

Iraq has always been the red-headed stepchild of OPEC. Even though they have the 2nd largest proven oil reserve, they have never been allowed to pump it.

Production has never recovered to pre-invasion numbers. Perhaps the @#$%tard should stop calling names and start reading? The oil is still in the ground and Big Oil is reaping the rewards.

-d

[benpetri]

Easily extractable is a reative term. In an engineering sense it means easy to pull out of the ground but in a practical sense it's tought to do with people shooting at you and blowing up your pipelines. Hardly the type on environment that privitization would thrive in, even if Iraq's government did support it. Investors? Anyone?

Iraq has virtually no hope of expanding production from its currently meager level unless the civil war ends. And right now, with sectarian divides as wide as ever, the US rattling the saber with Iran, and Iran responding by arming militias, I don't think this war's going to be ending anytime soon.

As for who should pay for this war, their "liberation" was our "great idea", shouldn't we be ethically obligated to pay for it? Forcing Iraqis to pay for our bombs which we drop on their cities seems a little bit cruel to me. That's kind of like back in the Middle Ages when you had to pay the executioner to cut of your own head...