January 25, 2006
Yet another audit, yet another report, and yet another US military officer caught stealing money in Iraq.
"One US military assistant is said to have gambled away up to $60,000 while accompanying the Iraqi Olympic team to the Philippines," [the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) said].
My, my. And a band of gamblers as well.
Reconstruction
in Iraq? Maybe the Americans came to Iraq to show us how corruption,
embezzlement and thievery are the guiding principles of democracy.
"Agents from the inspector general's office found that the living and working quarters of American occupation officials were awash in shrink-wrapped stacks of $100 bills, colloquially known as bricks.
One
official kept $2 million in a bathroom safe, another more than half a
million dollars in an unlocked footlocker. One contractor received more
than $100,000 to completely refurbish an Olympic pool but only polished
the pumps; even so, local American officials certified the work as
completed."
But, I am sure, we will hear protestations. We will
hear that this was the work of rogue elements. I bet if I sat down to
document each and every such incident of thievery, murder and the
pillaging of Iraq's wealth by the liberating US military plus every
single time we heard the same excuses, I would be sitting her till Jeb
Bush was re-elected in office in 2012.
And it seems to have been widespread: "It does not surprise me at all," said a Defense Department official who worked in Hilla and
other parts of the country, who spoke anonymously because he said he
feared retribution from the Bush administration. He predicted that
similar problems would turn up in the major southern city of Basra and
elsewhere in the dangerous desert wasteland of Anbar province. No,
I'm not surprised either. Perhaps the model bloggers and their cohorts
who may have received some of that corruption money are surprised.
Maybe the Americans who cheered this war are surprised to have
discovered their army was comprised of thieves and murderers, kind of
the same creed bred in the back alleys and other related cess pools in
the country.
Or, you have to ask, was all the cheering from the home crowd because they wanted in on the robbery?
Hell, the NYT also described incidents were the US military thieves stole from one another.
"Stop
it you propagandist, you liar, you terrorist," some red-white-and-blue
moron may say. "That money was originally donated to your country from
the hard-working tax-paying people of this great nation to assist in
the rebuilding of your country."
Not, so Johnny Blue, because
the audits say: "The money, most from Iraqi oil proceeds and cash
seized from Saddam Hussein's government, also easily found its way out
of the compound and the country."
Tsk, tsk.
Oh, you want
to talk about Saddam's palaces? Yes, let's talk about them. You say
they were built as Iraqis suffered and with money that should have been
distributed to Iraqis. Yet, when you came in, you made them your
headquarters. You languished in them, stole of their artifacts. And
then you handed them over to Badr, SCIRI, and Da'awa. You came to
liberate us from a man you called a tyrant and put your tyrannical,
murderous ways in his place.
Except you destroyed the country in the process.
Steal from the poor and give to the US military.
Band of thieves.
Meanwhile,
the son of the Iraqi general killed at the hands of the liberating US
officer is enraged that his father's murderer got off with a pat on the
back and a likely commendation from racists and the KKK.
Mohammed
Mowhoush, the son of an Iraqi general, revealed that when he was 15, he
and his brothers were detained by US forces and threatened with
"disappearance" in Guantanamo unless their father gave himself up.
Bad,
US soldier, bad, bad. Don't you know that violates US treaties? What?
You didn't know because you weren't taught to read in high school?
Apparently
not: Arresting someone to entice relatives to turn themselves in is
considered by human rights organizations to be a form of
hostage-taking. It is considered illegal in wartime but military
investigative documents reveal it has occurred in Iraq.
So, who really started hostage-taking and kidnappings in Iraq? Now you know.
Mohammed Mowhoush said he and his brothers want to sue Welshofer for
his role in their father's death. Mowhoush said he has nothing against
the American people but harbors ill feelings for the U.S. Army. "We
want justice to be done," he said.
Sorry, Mohammed, that's not
going to happen because the kind of American torture that is destroying
Iraq is widely supported in the US. They are proud of it and love their
men more for it, if Welshofer's wife is to be believed.
Band of racists. Band of murderers.
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