[OT-Way off] Rebuild Iraq for $2,000/week

[tarchon]

HOWEVER, a lot of work needs to be done that is beyond the abilities of local companies and workers. The US is thus contracting with American companies to do the work. Seems a bit scetchy at first, but really, if you think about it, the US government, all other things being equal, might as well give the contracts to American companies if they have to go to someone. Besides, almost all the other companies that do big petroleum infrastructure and similar work are from countries that led the charge against the war (France, Russia, Germany to a lesser extent), were undermining the US, Britain, etc by selling arms and intel to the Iraqis, and had huge oil contracts with Saddam set to go into effect if the sanctions ended with him still in power, so the US gov understandably doesnt want them profiting from it.

Alas, poor thread, we hardly knew ya.

 

[kuroshidaku]

Originally posted by DM_Matt
The US is not going to be directly drawing the profit...it will go to rebuilding the counrty and eventually to the new government.

Kind of odd for the richest nation in the world to make the third world country it blew to bits pay for its own reconstruction.

 

[jdavis]

Poor thread we hardly knew you.

If they say they will pay big bucks to unskilled labor then it may be a scam, they have tons of unskilled labor there already that will work for next to nothing. What they want is skilled labor, and they will pay huge bucks for that. My father works for Exxon he's been in the pipeline buisness for 30 years trust me the got all the unskilled grunts they can handle for the cost of a pack of smokes here, but if you got any mechanical or engineering skills then you could make big bucks, and it actually is safer than you would think.

 

[satori01]

(Please excuse all spelling mistakes)

Current Iraq oil facts include:
1) current estimate is 3.5bn to rebuild/improve Iraq's oil infrastructure to reach maximum oil output.
2)original plans for Iraqi oil output miscaculated the looting factor and many of the pre existing parts for the Iraqi pipeline are missing
3) The Iraqi pipeline is a hodgepodge mixture of US,Russian, and Chinese parts
4) Original estimates of 41bn being the cost of Iraqi rebuilding have recently been inflated,(study done by Spanish Economic agency), Iraqi oil sales are now no longer considered sufficent for Iraq reconstruction. The US, has not formally asked, but has hinted strongly towards wanting French and German monies to rebuild Iraq.
5) a formal or intern self determined Iraqi government has been postponed, and the intern US lead government has gone through some turmoil. At the moment it is unknown wether the Iraqi oil fields will be privatized or kept nationalized. The top US oil advisor in Iraq has made comments suggesting he favors keeping nationalized Iraqi oil,(recent La Times article).
6)Bechtel, Haliburton, and the Carlye Group, all have received large contracts concerning Iraq, some negotiated well before the war.(I want to point out that this is not a political statement, but fact, though some political inferences can be drawn, which I will not do here). All three companies have heavy personal involvement with the president or vice president.
7) According to a non partisian economic analysis by the Congressional Budget Office,(CBO), the current Bush tax plan will push both the federal government and state governments,(that often require large amounts of federal monies) into rather large deficits.

I want to reteirate that all the above statements are easily verifable facts, recently reported from Major United States news institutions. I added this information to neither inflame nor vex any viewer of said information. I am explicting not endorsing any view, nor trying to state any explict or implied "political" agenda or inference. I am merely sharing information, much in the spirit of Galileo,(hopefully yielding less consternation and less house arrest ) .

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

... must... resist...

"Evil Dead" hands... stay away from keyboard...

[chainsaw]

[edit] Just bumping this thread to the top with my name on the reply list is bound to bring Piratecat, Dinkeldog, or Eridanis swooping in...

I'm behaving! I'm behaving!

 

[Dinkeldog]

One political post, and KLUNK - closed she goes!

Any questions?