Reply #19: This cool article on another link, 2.6 million bbl/day oil production [View All]

[Harald Ragnarsson]

2.6 mil x avg $63/bbl x 3 freaking years plus now= a whole lot of money! Where the heck is it all going? $163,800,000 PER DAY. For THREE YEARS. Now he's asking for another $72 billion on top of that, plus on top of the $250 billion they've already blown.

The entire article details the massive THEFT that is the George W Bush administration.

http://www.tompaine.com/print/grand_theft_baghdad.php

After an investment of billions, Bowen reports that slightly more than a third of all water projects planned will ever actually be completed. Currently, two of three Iraqis are left with no potable water; only one in five has sewerage. Furthermore, recent figures suggest that at 4,000 megawatts, nation-wide electrical generating capacity is below pre-war levels and far below the goal of 6,000 MW. Instead of rebuilding several steam-turbine power stations— as Iraqi engineers and managers recommended—the CPA’s crony contractors chose to build new natural gas and diesel-powered combustion-turbine stations, despite the fact that Iraq doesn’t have adequate supplies of either. As a result of this arrogance and neglect, billions were wasted while the electricity in Baghdad is on for just a few hours each day.

Meanwhile, at 2.6 million barrels per day, crude oil production is significantly short of the goal of 3 MBPD. Liquefied petroleum gas has fared worse, with the CPA adding just 500 tons per day to existing production capacity, when the goal was to add 1,800 tons daily.

Given these and other shortfalls, it should be alarming that very little of the $72 billion that Bush is requesting would go to finish these jobs. Worse, Bowen warns that “the Iraqi government is not yet prepared to take over the near or long-term management and funding of infrastructure.”

The problems are not simply technical and bureaucratic: there are also signs of massive corruption. In its 2005 report, Transparency International, which tracks governmental corruption around the globe, warned that post-war Iraq could be “the biggest corruption scandal in history.”