BACKGROUND
The present-day Bush administration falsely warned us that the most recent phase of this 13
year-long war was necessary because Iraq was an imminent threat due to its ties to Al- Quida
and September 11, and due to its Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). The results have been
staggering: the further destruction of Iraq's enfeebled infrastructure and a state of chaos, anarchy
and insecurity unlike anything in the past.
 
Meanwhile, the cost in human life and assets continues to mount: some thirty thousand Iraqi
soldiers and civilians are dead, thousands more wounded, and vast numbers of other persons are
subject to enormous physical and emotional strife. The administration further shocked human
sensibilities by admitting that its immediate goal is to return Iraq only to it prewar condition. All
the while, US casualties increase daily.
 
Now, the monetary cost of the war -- $4 billion a month -- is impacting the US at a time of
severe economic downturn, large tax cuts for the upper five percent of the US population and
astronomical deficits. Clearly, the US economy is being militarized and policies are being put in
place to alter, irrevocably, the progressive social system that took decades to achieve. A few
statistics are in order.
 
In 2002, states cut $47 billion from health, education and welfare, and are cutting an additional
$27 billion in 2003. While the Bush administration has increased the military budget to $400
billion for normal operations, it acquired supplemental funds of $75 billion for the invasion and
now wants $87 billion more to continue the occupation. The administration admits to the need
for still an additional $55 billion.
 
Of the $87 billion, $66 billion is for military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere,
and 20.3 Billion for rebuilding Iraq (establish Zip codes, help Iraqi workers learn English, and
start a museum about Hussein’s atrocities). The administration estimates reconstruction costs to
be $50-75 billion, a conservative estimate by most standards.
 
Simultaneously, the US is privatizing Iraq’s economy or, as it might be more correctly stated,
selling it off to its corporate friends. The economic plan of the US appointed Iraqi ruling council
allows foreign companies to buy 100 percent of any business, with the exception of oil. The
contract for rebuilding Iraq’s oil industry has been given to Kellogg, Brown and Root, a
subsidiary of Haliburton Corp for whom Vice President Cheney worked as CEO immediately
prior to his election, and from whom he continues to receive a deferred salary.

(Interestingly, the average income for a CEO with US defense contractors was $11 million in
2001-02. This is more than 700 times the base pay of $12,776 of a US soldier.)

Under the guise of providing reconstruction loans and helping with Iraq’s $200 billion debt, the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) are poised to gain significant control
over Iraq’s economy. Clearly, political independence for Iraq will mean little if its economy and
all its assets are owned or controlled by foreign entities.
 
The Bush administration knows that it is caught in a quagmire. Yet, after ridiculing, attacking
and branding the UN as irrelevant, the administration has turned to the very same UN to
authorize other countries to send troops and money to clean up the chaos unleashed by the US’s
unprovoked conquest. Such authority will not only give international support to an illegal war
and occupation but, as some contend, free-up US forces for another preventive war just prior to
next year’s elections. These latter commentators caution us not to dismiss such a scenario too
easily given the administration’s track record.

(For an alternative view of reconstruction in Iraq see the “Petition for an Emergency UN
Resolution on Iraq.” http://www.petitiononline.com/MayDay03/ )

ACTION
1. Write/call (see sample letter below) your senators to express opposition to the Senate bill.
http://www.senate.gov/

2. You may also want to write/call your Representative in anticipation of a similar bill being
introduced in the House.
http://www.house.gov/writerep/

SAMPLE LETTER
Dear Senator/Representative

I urge you to reject the administration’s request for $87 Billion supplemental funds. This money
will continue to propel our country on an illegal and immoral path. At the same time, it will
further increase the control of Iraq’s economy by foreign entities. Iraq’s political independence
will mean little given this eventuality.

The monetary cost of the war -- $4 billion a month -- is impacting the US at a time of severe
economic downturn, large tax cuts for the upper five percent of the US population and
astronomical deficits. Clearly, the US economy is being militarized and policies are being put in
place to alter, irrevocably, the progressive social system that took decades to achieve. A few
statistics are in order.
 
In 2002, states cut $47 billion from health, education and welfare, and are cutting an additional
$27 billion in 2003. While the administration has increased the military budget to $400 billion
for normal operations, it acquired supplemental funds of $75 billion for the invasion and now
wants $87 billion more to continue the occupation. The administration admits to the need for still
an additional $55 billion. Where will it all end?

We can do better than this for the people of Iraq and our own people. Please oppose the
administrations request.

Sincerely,