US TAXPAYER MONEY GOES DOWN THE DRAIN IN IRAQ

We knew it was bad in Iraq, but we never knew there was this much corruption going on in Iraq and it is costing the US taxpayer BILLIONS of dollars.

This is just a small sample of the corruption going on in Iraq with the new US-backed government.

It is mind-boggling to think schools, roads and health care in the United States are in dire need of help and yet the Bush administration continues to pour more and more money into the failed strategy to turn Iraq into a democracy.


Corruption costs Iraq $4 billion annually. $8.8 billion the U.S. gave the Iraqi government cannot be fully accounted for. More than 20% of the government’s Ministry of Interior staff are “ghost employees”—nonexistent workers who collect paychecks. As much as 30% of Iraq’s refined oil ends up on the black market or is illegally taken out of the country. The U.S. government says the insurgency raises $25 to $100 million a year smuggling oil. $9 billion in oil revenues has been lost, almost as much as Saddam Hussein stole from the U.N. Oil-for-Food program over five years.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2007/03/bill_me_later.html

With Friends Like These41 cents of every dollar of American reconstruction money is spent on the Iraqi military or police. 3 cents goes to “democracy building.” A newly recruited Iraqi soldier makes $60 a month. Iraqi units report that half of their soldiers go awol when sent to new combat areas. The Pentagon says it’s trying to instill “a more deployable mindset.” Of the 323,000 members of Iraq’s security forces, 1/3 are considered “technically proficient” and only 10,000 are “politically dependable.” American trainers report that 70% of the police force has been infiltrated by militias. 90,000 rifles and 80,000 pistols supplied to the Iraqi security forces cannot be accounted for.

Click on link to read more if you can stomach it.