NEWS: US Told To Repay Iraq Up To $280 Million Over Halliburton Scandal

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
The hilarity of it all is the U.N. demanding the U.S. pay for anything!

My point exactly.

Iraq should reimburse us for delivering their children from Hussein, but that is quite another story.

So much for getting off the first page without that coming up. In a vacuum I actually would have to agree that the Iraqis can hardly expect us to entirely foot the bill for kicking a maniacal dictator out of government for them, however that is sort of another story, because then you get into a lot of legalistic discussions. For instance we can't just take it (much less is Halliburton the rightful recepient), but that there should have been a legal agreement on payment made the minute we got in, at the very least between us and exile groups and perhaps any Iraqi officials who were willing to coup, and then it would have had to be their call to refuse further "service", or else we'd have to foot the bill for the occupation.

So in short, I agree in theory but not in light of this particular mode of practice.

Originally posted by The Vagabond

it would have had to be their call to refuse further "service", or else we'd have to foot the bill for the occupation.

Aye. There's the rub.

Not to mention the fact that all of Iraq's businesses, banks and everything were appropriated, then divvied up and split between the conquering corps.