Iraq demanding U.S. pay $1 billion for damages to Baghdad

#26
#26
BearCat204 said:
I dont know why I am thinking this, but I wouldnt be 100% against paying this. The main reason would be our relationship with that new government and the potential for more hate and discontent with the US. If the people and government there, no matter if correct or not, believe that we destroyed their home and then just up and left without financial assistance, it would damage an already bad image we have with that part of the world.
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Are you kidding me? Let them use their huge reservoir of oil to pay for their own beautification. If anything, they should be using said oil money to pay the U.S. for services rendered in helping to set up their new government, train their military, and police their country for them for years.
 
#27
#27
OJ said:
They need to pay 1 billion to us for every military personel that died over there.
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I hope you're joking.

Their budget consisted of around $72 billion last year with a $20 billion deficit.

I'll gladly take their oil reserves that aren't already coming our way.
 
#30
#30
Vol423 said:
Are you kidding me? Let them use their huge reservoir of oil to pay for their own beautification. If anything, they should be using said oil money to pay the U.S. for services rendered in helping to set up their new government, train their military, and police their country for them for years.
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Vol_4_Life said:
Doesn't make any less sense than us paying them because their ramshackle capital was damaged in the process of us liberating them from a ruthless dictator.
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My position on this is not from a "right thing to do" pov. But, if you have the chance to "buy" some sort of favor in Iraq with a billion dollar check, I think it is in our best interest to do so. I think we spend in the neighborhood of 56 billion in foreign aid, I think there is some wiggle room there to pay this. If you do it though, the US should make a big deal about it with the people there so that they know we sent it.
 
#31
#31
you think if we send them a billion they'll start liking us? worked well for egypt. oh wait.
 
#32
#32
BearCat204 said:
My position on this is not from a "right thing to do" pov. But, if you have the chance to "buy" some sort of favor in Iraq with a billion dollar check, I think it is in our best interest to do so. I think we spend in the neighborhood of 56 billion in foreign aid, I think there is some wiggle room there to pay this. If you do it though, the US should make a big deal about it with the people there so that they know we sent it.
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That's not the point; they should be eternally grateful for their liberation. We've already invested huge sums of cash in the country, and they're complaining about Baghdad. I'm sure they would be requesting money if the previous repressive sociopath was still in power.
 
#33
#33
bam15 said:
I think that is the naive, easy way out. While we are still in an unipolar world, it is within our national interest to form a world order to our liking, and with that countries that copy American values. More so, it would prevent emerging challengers.
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You do know that Iraq now has the 4th most corrupt government in the world!
 
#34
#34
bam15 said:
That's not the point; they should be eternally grateful for their liberation. We've already invested huge sums of cash in the country, and they're complaining about Baghdad. I'm sure they would be requesting money if the previous repressive sociopath was still in power.
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The other point is that we have our own problems here. Despite the fact that both Democrats and Republicans agree that the new Form 1099 rule that some idiot sneaked into the Health Reform Bill is stupid and will cost massive amounts to businesses in compliance costs, they won't repeal that provision until they can make up for the estimated $2 billion in revenues that the provision is estimated to raise. They are expecting this to be a long, drawn out issue and this is something that BOTH PARTIES agree needs to be repealed. All they need is $2 billion in tax revenues elsewhere or $2 billion in expense cuts to make it budget neutral. Now, we're supposed to shell out half of that amount to beautify the capital of a country that should be licking our boots for all that we've done for them? Thanks, but no thanks!
 
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#36
#36
bam15 said:
I hope you're joking.

Their budget consisted of around $72 billion last year with a $20 billion deficit.

I'll gladly take their oil reserves that aren't already coming our way.
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as if there was free Iraqi oil flowing into American petroleum reserves now.
 
#37
#37
MG1968 said:
as if there was free Iraqi oil flowing into American petroleum reserves now.
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Where did I say that? We didn't annex them for Christ's sake. Strategically, we secured the reserves, and are heavily involved in investment.
 
#38
#38
bam15 said:
Where did I say that? We didn't annex them for Christ's sake. Strategically, we secured the reserves, and are heavily involved in investment.
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you seemed to imply that there was some dedicated supply of Iraqi oil destined exclusively for America. Perhaps I misunderstood the meaning behind "I'll gladly take their oil reserves that aren't already coming our way"
 
#39
#39
MG1968 said:
you seemed to imply that there was some dedicated supply of Iraqi oil destined exclusively for America. Perhaps I misunderstood the meaning behind "I'll gladly take their oil reserves that aren't already coming our way"
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"Aren't already coming our way" could imply 2 barrels of oil or 13 million barrels of oil.
 
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