Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report.
Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15 million daily.
That's billions of dollars stolen. And just the energy rebuilding costs to us American taxpayers so far:
Adding together both civilian and military financing, the report concludes that the United States has spent $5.1 billion of the $7.4 billion in American taxpayer money set aside to rebuild the Iraqi electricity and oil sectors. The United States has also spent $3.8 billion of Iraqi money on those sectors, the report says.
Despite those enormous expenditures, the performance is far short of official goals, and in some cases seems to be declining further. The average output of Iraq’s national electricity grid in 2006, for example, was 4,300 megawatts, about equal to its value before the 2003 invasion. By February of this year, the figure had fallen still further, to 3,800 megawatts, the report says.
Less than 6 hours a day of electricity in Baghdad, less than 9 hours a day in the rest of the country. Imagine your home and/or office running like that.
Oh, and another day, another 26 Iraqi civilians slaughtered.
With stats like these, it's getting harder and harder to argue against immediate withdrawal. Might that day happen on Georgie's watch?
Cue the rooftop helicopters.
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