Whether we forgive their debt or not, we will still spend billions to rebuild their country when it's over. Personally, we should not be there, we're not wanted and we should'nt forgive anything. I'm getting off my soap box now.......

Comparisons:

Total of forgiven debts to Iraq = $4.1 billion
Average weekly total spent on Iraq war = $4.3 billion
Total spent on current Iraq war = $218 Billion

Current annual foreign aid to Israel = $2.75 billion
Total foreign aid to Israel since 1956 = $127 billion

Current annual foreign aid to Egypt = $2.1 billion
Total foreign aid to Egypt since 1980 = $96.5 Billion

Current annual foreign aid to Saudi Arabia = $650 million
Total foreign aid to Saudi Arabia since 1973 = $38.5 Billion
Total of current Saudi Arabian holdings in the US = $1.8 TRILLION (with $865 Billion invested in hard assets (Real Estate) and just under $1 Trillion in corporate ownership and sponsorships)

Current annual tobacco subsidies = $800 Million
Total tobacco subsidies since 1975 = $37 Billion

Current annual farm subsidies = $90 billion
Total farm subsidies since 2000 = $435 Billion

Heres an interesting statistic that Michael Moore missed:

Bush Family holdings in 1988(Bush I elected) = $800 million
Bush Family holdings in 1992(post Gulf I)    = $2.3 Billion
Bush family holdings as of 9/11/01 = $3.9 Billion
Bush family holdings as of 9/11/04 = $8.7 Billion
(based on the published values of properties, stocks, bonds and corporate holdings owned by the extended Bush clan families)

Put into its proper perspective, the US forgiving the Iraqi debt isn't even a drop in the bucket compared to other costs being borne by the 99.97% of Americans not lucky enough to be in bed with the current regime.

-- Modified on 12/26/2004 8:24:02 AM