Bush Administration Knew Iraq Could Not Pay for Reconstruction with Oil Revenues
President Bush has had to reverse course and increase his request for reconstruction aid to Iraq more than eight-fold, from an original $2.5 billion to a current level of $20.5 billion, largely because he earlier disregarded a well-documented report revealing the poor state of Iraq's oil industry.
Instead of using revenues from Iraqi oil to finance reconstruction, as the White House predicted before the war, the Administration now is asking for more than $900 million to import oil, propane, diesel and gasoline to the beleaguered country.
In March, as the war began, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz claimed revenues of $50-$100 billion from Iraqi oil could be expected within two to three years, declaring, "We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." At the time, however, the Administration chose to ignore a UN-commissioned report from 2000 that had reported Iraq's outmoded oil-producing facilities were clearly in disrepair.
Now the administration concedes Iraqi oil revenues will be zero this year, increasing only to $12.1 billion in 2004.
A billion here, a billion there...pretty soon you're talking about real money, eh? Unfortunately, when you practice the type of accounting the Bush Administration seems to, money (not to mention truth) hardly seems to matter.
