Billions Lost in Iraq

[From article]
"As of November of last year, US taxpayers spent over $900 billion on the Iraq War. Of that, $9 billion has gone missing or is unaccounted for, along with $549.7 million in spare parts and 190,000 guns.
[. . .]
In 2003, the US sent $2.4 billion in pallets of cash to Iraq via a C-130 cargo plane, followed by other such flights, carryng a total of $6.6 billion. Astoundingly, all of the money went missing, and last June, the US and Iraqi governments said they’d been unsuccessful in tracking any of it down and were closing the case.
[. . .]
This past Wednesday, an audit published by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said that the US can’t account for all of the $70 billion sent to Afghanistan throughout the now 10-year-old war and found both countries to blame.
[. . .]
no amount of military might or peaceful propaganda could compete for the allegiance of Iraqi citizens the way the US dollar could.
[. . .]
It was, and remains, common for multiple contracts to be given to different companies for the same job. “One school can be painted three times,”
[. . .]
“In that culture, it’s about blood money,” Whiteley says. A slain child has degrees of value, depending on how many wives a man has, how many children, and the ratio of males to females. (A dead boy is worth more than a girl.) A killing during an ambush also raises the price.
[. . .]
“The guys from the CIA and other spook agencies said, ‘You guys aren’t authorized to have informants.’ ”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/hookers_booze_bribes_ORtEHhz2G6PYfTK4gKatwN

Hookers, booze & bribes
The secret weapons of our shadow war in Iraq — and how we lost $9 billion
Maureen Callahan
New York Post
Last Updated: 4:20 AM, July 24, 2011
Posted: 10:37 PM, July 23, 2011