Baghdad Republicans

As millions of Americans hurry to complete their taxes by April 15, yet more indication that those hard earned dollars are being needlessly lost in the sands of Iraq. With oil over $100 a barrel, Iraqi coffers are bulging with cash. Billions of dollars in fact. So, those revenues are being used to pay for Iraqi security and improvements to infrastructure, like the neocons promised five long years ago, right?

CNN -- He was replying to Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who last week complained that after five years of war, "it is still the American taxpayer who is shouldering the greatest economic burden in Iraq." Levin, a key congressional Democrat, made the comment during a series of hearings last week in the House and Senate on the status of the war. With the 5-year-old war's cost to U.S. taxpayers now estimated at more than $600 billion, the Iraqi windfall provoked sharp questions from lawmakers to the top U.S. general in Iraq Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, who were among those who testified.

"This nation's facing record deficits, and the Iraqis have translated their oil revenues into budget surpluses rather than effective services," Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday.

The Iraqi foriegn minister went on CNN yesterday to make excuses. I can understand why senior Iraqi officials are happy to sit on their treasure -- along with their asses -- and let US taxpayers cover their bills, pay their salaries, and risk our soldiers' lives, but why in the world would Republicans stand for it? Just which country do John McCain and his conservative pals think they're working for exactly? If Baghdad Republicans want to play US taxpayers for dopes and hand over our money to pad the Swiss bank accounts of Iraqi fat cats, fine, reregister as a foriegn lobby or 527, or whatever the fuck they want. But please, let's dispense with the laughable notion that the Iraq Wing of the GOP is an American political party working with American interests in mind.