Getting Rich in Iraq

Last night I received the following e-mail from Max Angst. It puts the Iraqi thing in a new light

ART: The round up of supposed Al Qaeda wannabes in Miami was pathetic. I don’t know these men, but from what I saw on television there didn’t seem to be much sophistication in the group. I don’t doubt they had animosity for the US. Marginally educated black males are the most put upon group in our country; I doubt that they had a good quality of life. It appears they had originally come together to seek religious knowledge and were led down the road to Al Qaeda by a government mole. If so, making so much of this story could well have the opposite results from what the government wanted. Instead of coming off as great protectors of the nation, the government is shown to be mean spirited abusers of the already oppressed.
If the Bush administration really wanted to act against people harming our country, they would prosecute the war profiteers. They have said over and over that American troops will come home when Iraqi’s can control their own country. According to Patrick Cockburn of the London Guardian, “One billion dollars has been plundered from Iraq’s defense ministry in one of the largest thefts in history, leaving the country’s army to fight a savage insurgency with museum piece weapons.” He notes, ”The carefully planned theft has so weakened the army it cannot hold Baghdad against insurgent attacks without American military support, Iraqi officials say, making it difficult for the US to withdraw its 135,000-strong army as Washington says it wishes to do.
Cockburn also tells us, ”Senior Iraqi officials now say they cannot understand how, if this is so, the disappearance of almost all the military procurement budget could have passed unnoticed by the US Military in Baghdad and civilian advisors working in the defense ministry……Government officials in Baghdad even suggest that the skill which the robbery was organized suggests that the iraqis involved were only front men and ‘rogue elements’ within the US military or intelligence services may have played a decisive roll behind the scenes.”
How many American troops are dead because of this theft? If the money was used to obtain modern weapons, many of our troops would be home. Why wasn’t this theft reported broadly by the news media as the story of these men in Miami has been? This leaves me with the feeling that the war in Iraq is not on the level, that American troops are dying so that some people can get rich, Isn’t that a great reason for getting out of Iraq? The American people have to tell the Bush administration it’s tired of American’s being slaughtered so Bush’s friends can get rich.
MAX