Quote:
Originally Posted by DTK
I couldn't disagree more. They're spending billions to rebuild the oil infrastructure. Do you really think they're doing that out the goodness of their hearts? IMO, they're there for the long haul. It was a war of conquest, man  |
I agree they are spending tons ot rebuild the oil infrastructure of the country and that they planned for us to have a long term influnence on the country. I think they felt like we would roll in, kick saddam out, put a nice US friendly democracy in power and then reap the oil rewards and that this wouldn't take much time or money. Here are a couple of great quotes:
"In terms of the American taxpayers contribution, [$1.7 billion] is it for the US. The rest of the rebuilding of Iraq will be done by other countries and Iraqi oil revenues. The American part of this will be 1.7 billion. We have no plans for any further-on funding for this. " - USAID Director Andrew Natsios 4/23/03
or
"Iraq will be an affordable endeavor that will not require sustained aid and will be in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion" - Budget Director Mitch Daniels 03/28/03
Clearly they weren't expecting what happened and so they probably didn't plan for it. Once we found ourselves involved in something we weren't ready for things got ugly and expensive fast.