Gack

[rfmcdonald]

I'm sure Iraqis would have major problems with this proposal from National Review Online. Get the US to help rebuild Iraq? Why bother, since Iraq isn't American:

As such, we would propose a fairer way to pay for infrastructure reconstruction in Iraq than the president's plan. First, the dollars for rebuilding this nation should not be given, but rather loaned, to Iraq through the U.S. government, or better yet, through a financial intermediary, such as the World Bank, or the International Monetary Fund. These loans should be collateralized against the future profits of the Iraqi oilfields. A formula which dedicates 50 percent of the oil profits to the repayment of these loans, could mean that within 10 to 15 years the debts would be paid off in full (depending in part on what happens to the world price of oil). Better yet, if the Iraqi government decides to privatize the oil fields through a public offering, some percentage of the sale proceeds should be dedicated to debt repayment. We would even go a step further; a substantial portion of the actual war costs could and should be reimbursed to the U.S. government from this oil money, because the ultimate beneficiaries of this war were the Iraqi people themselves.

I'm sure Iraqis will love this.