the u.s. armed iraq to combat iran, which was our mutual enemy at the time. there is even a photograph of donald rumsfeld - who ran the pentagon under george w. bush - shaking qaddafi's hand. when we invaded iraq to secure the world's second largest oil field, we fought troops that we had trained, who were using weapons that the u.s. government supplied to them.

during the early days of the iraq occupation, the u.s. sent us$40 billion (with a 'b') in cash to iraq, but never made provisions to get receipts for how the money was used. as a result, the entire sum literally disappeared.

we still have no idea where it went.

although we are withdrawing u.s. troops from iraq, we are tripling the number of private military contractors stationed there. blackwater alone has received more than us$1 billion from the u.s. government and us$600 million from the cia for this. kbr has received more than us$40 billion.

also, while the military is subject to american law and military law while in other countries, private contractors are not.

the u.s. flew us$12 billion in shrink-wrapped $100 bills to iraq. then distributed the cash without even getting receipts.

the largest bank robbery in history happened in iraq on the day before the u.s. bombed baghdad. us$920 million was taken.

your tax dollars at work: the u.s. imported sand into iraq to build blast walls.

let me say that again: sand. imported. into iraq. yeah.

in 2001, saddam hussein sent us$94 million to the united states for the poor and the homeless. the u.s. rejected iraq's money.

remember the first gulf war? ever wonder why iraq attacked kuwait? kuwait was drilling wells near the border diagonally to steal iraq's oil.

ever wonder why we got involved? well, other than the fact that iraq was selling oil to france and russia rather than to us, a kuwaiti nurse testified before congress that iraqi soldiers stormed the hospital where she worked, took babies out of incubators, and killed them. except that never happened.

the nurse wasn't a nurse. she was the daughter of the kuwaiti ambassador. she was coached on what to say by a pr firm called hill & knowlton, who were hired by the government of kuwait for about us$11 million.

depending upon your experience, you can make as much as us$1000 per day working as a mercenary for a u.s. government contractor in afghanistan, iraq, etc. the u.s. government borrows the money from china, and you pay that debt (well, actually, the interest on that debt) with your taxes.

the largest embassy in the world is the u.s. embassy in iraq. it cost us$750 million to build, has 16,000 employees, and costs us$6 billion per year to run. iraq produces 3,5 million barrels of oil per day, and is the 2nd largest oil reserve on earth.