• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People are complicated. Love is not.

The revolution will be supervised.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

The willow is too close to the house.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

We are aware of all internet traditions.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Bark louder, little dog.

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War / Now For Something Completely Different

Now For Something Completely Different

by John Cole|  April 30, 20047:44 am| 1 Comment

This post is in: War

FacebookTweetEmail

Brace yourselves- Kevin Drum and I agree. Kevin notes that this CPA report on the reconstruction in Iraq states that far less than what should have been spent and has been earmaked has been actually used (less than 5%):

That’s about a billion dollars, the bulk of which has gone to big ticket projects like the electric grid and getting the oil flowing.

The real shame of this is that we’ve insisted that all this money be spent through normal channels. Needless to say, there are good reasons for maintaining oversight over federal funds, but it’s hard not to think that loosening the normal requirements would have been a good idea for at least a piece of this funding.

Think about it: give or take a bit, we have about 200 battalions in Iraq. Each battalion has four to six companies. Give each company captain $20,000 a week to spend on local projects staffed by Iraqis. Total cost: around a billion dollars a year.

Assuming his math is right, I agree wholeheartedly. We trust these battalion commanders with massive combat strength, enough weaponry to level cities, and most of all, we trust them with our most precious asset- our young men and women.

I think we can trust these guys with some cash.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « It Is Now Undeniable
Next Post: Doubts About Kerry »

Reader Interactions

1Comments

  1. 1.

    Dodd

    May 4, 2004 at 7:05 pm

    Oh, right. Like Kevin Drum of all people wouldn’t be howling at the moon and tying the noose for Bush’s neck himself if President Bush made even the tiniest gesture toward “loosening” the oversight of federal funds being spent in Iraq.

    Let’s not forget his never-ending devotion to finding something – *anything* – he could “interpret” – no matter his self-admitted ignorance – as “proof” Bush was AWOL. Given his track record of spinning tiny fragments of data he clearly doesn’t understand into an attack on Bush, if even US$1 ended up in the hands of some Halliburton subsidiary building a school at the discretion of some Company Commander, Drum would write 35 posts calling for the President’s head.

    I’m not saying this is a bad idea, but it doesn’t surprise me it comes from Drum as he obviously doesn’t have the first clue about military budgeting, either. Back when I was in and Clinton was gutting defense spending, we ran out of maintenance funds with which to buy parts *halfway* through a fiscal quarter. We had gear piled up to the ceiling waiting for July to roll around so we could order spares. At the same time, the Chiefs all got new desks – because we had “Administrative” funds left in the budget.

    The CO of my base – an 0-6, and former skipper of an aircraft carrier, in charge of a naval installation with 10,000 sailors and 40,000 civilian employees – didn’t have auhtority to move 60 grand from one fund into another. And Kevin Drum thinks they’d give a bunch of 0-3s five years out of West Point (or ROTC) a billion dollars to throw around?!? He really ought to desist from ever talking about the military at all; he’s utterly clueless.

    You’re right, John, we oughta be able to trust these guys with some cash. But you know perfectly well that this is a pipe dream. Congress would have to approve it, I suspect, for one thing, which seems unlikely. We’re going to give Teddy Kennedy a free talking point about Bush wanting to undo fraud prevention rules in the appropriations process?!?

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • kalakal on Un-fucking-believable – How Is This Not Dereliction of Duty? (Sep 21, 2023 @ 9:19pm)
  • Odie Hugh Manatee on Thursday Evening Open Thread: GOP War to the Knife Spork (Sep 21, 2023 @ 9:18pm)
  • Scout211 on But Enjoy Your Weekend (Sep 21, 2023 @ 9:18pm)
  • Elizabelle on But Enjoy Your Weekend (Sep 21, 2023 @ 9:15pm)
  • HumboldtBlue on But Enjoy Your Weekend (Sep 21, 2023 @ 9:13pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
What Has Biden Done for You Lately?

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Cole & Friends Learn Español

Introductory Post
Cole & Friends Learn Español

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!