I have spent a large part of my life writing computer programs that allow governments to keep track of their money. Losing track of billions of dollars just doesn't happen, unless someone in the chain wants it to happen.
The people cutting the checks for the taxpayer's money were not in Bagdad, they were in Washington, and the money wasn't paid to the Iraqs, it was paid to US contractors, notably Halliburton. So arguments that blame the lack of accountibiity on the conditions it the war zone are totally bogus. If the excuse of the contractors is "we gave the money to the Iraqis and we don't know what they did with it" then the contractors are in violation of numerous federal laws, and should be punished accordingly, along with any government employees who signed off on the payments without oversight being in place. On 9/18/06, Robert Munn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I am the person who pointed out the lack of accounting last year. The > husband of a friend of my wife did a year or so in Iraq working for a > contractor on re-construction projects. We overran a country that we had > spent ten years degrading through sanctions, after Saddam had spent two > decades degrading it through his thuggery and gangland "government". There > was no way in hell we were going to have proper accounting for all the money > spent. They didn't even have a proper banking system- no mechanism for > extending credit, no stock exchange, etc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:215628 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
