Saturday, October 25, 2003
The international kitty to rebuild Iraq now stands at $33 billion. Which is good.
But $13 billion of that fund is in the form of loans, which is bad. The fact that the Saudis loaned money is especially noteworthy, as a cynical person might suggest that an Iraq crippled with huge debts won't be able to make full use of it's vast oil fields, helping to maintain the status quo that helped Saudi Arabia when Iraqi oil was under international sanctions.
France and Germany didn't offer any money. Which is bad. But their reasons for not doing so are understandable, why should they pay for someone elses war? But that's not much of an excuse to all the people of Iraq today. They could point out that they didn't ask for a decade of sanctions either, and when they tried to do something about Saddam the international community turned it's back.
But $13 billion of that fund is in the form of loans, which is bad. The fact that the Saudis loaned money is especially noteworthy, as a cynical person might suggest that an Iraq crippled with huge debts won't be able to make full use of it's vast oil fields, helping to maintain the status quo that helped Saudi Arabia when Iraqi oil was under international sanctions.
France and Germany didn't offer any money. Which is bad. But their reasons for not doing so are understandable, why should they pay for someone elses war? But that's not much of an excuse to all the people of Iraq today. They could point out that they didn't ask for a decade of sanctions either, and when they tried to do something about Saddam the international community turned it's back.
