Sunday, August 13, 2006

Struggling for money, how did Iraq scrap together $35 million to pledge elsewhere?

On page A6 of Saturday's New York Times, James Glanz noted the following in "An Audit Sharply Criticizes Iraq's Bookkeeping:"

But in a country in need of every dollar it can generate to restore a crumbling infrastructure, pay government salaries and train its security forces, the auditors found enormous sums simply deposited in the wrong government account or counted differently by various offical agencies. The actual oil exports could not be determiend accurately because Iraq still does not have modern equipment for measuring what its pipelines pour into tankers.

Iraq is a country in need of every dollar and reading the above made us recall a question that apparently only Arianna Huffington will ever raise. From her "Maliki's Testy Visit: Is This What Our Troops Are Dying For?" at The Huffington Post:

What more, Maliki wants to "maintain strong ties to Iran," has sided with Hezbollah in the current hostilities with Israel, and has pledged $35 million in aid to Lebanon (where is that money coming from?).

Where is that money coming from? He made that pledge before coming to the US as part of the "Send more money!" efforts. When you're dependent upon aid from other nations, how do you manage to scrape together $35 million to send to another country, any country?
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