"Any further reconstruction money given to Iraq should be a loan."

[Coexist]

Ben Nelson.

A-fucking-men, Senator Nelson.

[Horse with no Name]

1. and they will repay it how?

Come on now...we have completely destroyed their infrastructure.
And NOW we are expecting THEM to pay US back?
Personally I think we OWE them reparations for what we have done to their country.

[Coexist]

3. its not about the repayment - its about thinking twice before sending over bucketfuls

its about spending it here instead.

If there are at least strings attached, maybe it will slow down.

[Horse with no Name]

4. We shouldn't be sending it in bucketloads

but to ask the people we have oppressed to pay us back for the oppression is sickeningly beyond the pale.

[Coexist]

5. again - as long as there are no strings there will be no limits

i am tired of sending billions over there.

yes, we broke it, but we've spent enough trying to fix it. Iraqis aren't getting these rebuilding contracts.

[bryant69]

7. Yeah doing the right thing is too damn hard.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Horse with no Name]

8. yet we haven't attempted to fix anything

all we have done is rape and pillage their country, their birthplace.
They have gained nothing from our presence and we want to award them with a huge debt?
This is nothing but a shell game.
Do you REALLY think that by changing the language and stating that all of this money we are sending over there is magically a loan will change one thing?
It will not.
It is a diversion...the same amount of money will STILL go over there, however, the caveat will be that the Iraqi's OWE us that money now...and the government can put it in Accounts Payable instead of Accounts Receivable.
It is a shell game.
And it stinks to high heaven.
Fix the problem...don't change the language.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Why don't we have the Iraqis just pay for their own occupation? Then the US military will be raking

in profits a la Blackwater!

[Marr]

6. Screw that-- the Iraqi population should owe money to Halliburton and Blackwater?

Give me a break.

I'd say any future reconstruction money should be mandated to go to Iraqi business, and every US war profiteer currently on the books should be audited to hell and back and slapped with windfall profits taxes until their net gain is exactly -$1.

[Coexist]

9. if Iraqis have to pay for it - don't you think they will hire fellow Iraqis?

maybe it doesn't sound right - but the dynamic needs to change, and $$ is a big motivators for change.

Sorry - it doesn't sound nice, but something's gotta give. I think this may be a ticket to an overhaul.

[Horse with no Name]

11. but THE IRAQI'S don't have the power to HIRE OR FIRE anyone

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS THE ENTITY WHO HAS HIRED AND FIRED EVERYONE.
You don't think the Iraqi's don't want to work and make money?
You do realize that they had a nice functioning country with real businesses that did their own work before this occupation don't you?
They weren't some third world country without a decent infrastructure.

[Marr]

14. They aren't doing the hiring now. This would only allow the current US

war profiteers to financially rape future Iraqi generations today, and it certainly wouldn't encourage any change. Quite the opposite, in fact.

[Solly Mack]

10. paying in blood that never had to be shed wasn't good enough?

Iraq doesn't owe me anything. Iraq doesn't owe America anything either.

[libnnc]

12. We bomb the shit out of your country and you owe us to rebuild it.

Remarkable.

[Horse with no Name]

13. Amen Solly. n/t

[niyad]

15. dear ben, they did NOT ask us to invade their country and to blow it to

bits, remember. they did NOT ask us to occupy their country, to screw up the electricity, the water, security, etc. so where in the HELL do you get off acting as though they are deadbeats who don't deserve to have the country that WE turned to shit rebuilt?

I am so damned sick of hearing this kind of crap, about how they are "failing to meet the benchmarks" that WE set, etc.