Foreign Policy Blogs

UPDATE: Iraq Demands Return of Stolen Billions

File it under “sublimely ridiculous.”

In wake of the US announcement that nearly seven billion dollars destined for reconstruction in Iraq had been stolen — not just mislaid in an accounting miscue — Iraqi lawmakers are demanding the return of $17 billion they say was stolen since 2003.

The parliament’s totally legitimate and absolutely incontestable “Integrity Committee” has called the alleged theft a “financial crime,” while bemoaning its lack of recourse given America’s position atop the UN Security Council.

Wonderful to learn that the only folks suffering from the running count of the total monies invested, lost or otherwise wasted in the war effort and subsequent occupation ($783,000,000,000 or something, by the way…) aren’t the American taxpayers.

 

Author

Reid Smith

Reid Smith has worked as a research associate specializing on U.S. policy in the Middle East and as a political speechwriter. He is currently a doctoral student and graduate associate with the University of Delaware's Department of Political Science and International Relations. He blogs and writes for The American Spectator.