# Pentagon can't account for $8.7 BILLION of Iraqi aid money. Where's the outrage? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 28, 2010, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272 "2010-07-28T05:24:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/1 "2010-07-28T05:24:16Z")
**[http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100727/ts\_nm/us\_iraq\_usa\_spending](http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100727/ts_nm/us_iraq_usa_spending)** This story will just blow away. Yet, if some welfare mom in Detroit gets an extra $10 in food stamps the press is all over it. We can’t afford health care reform but we can plow unaccounted for money into Iraq corruption as though it is just “business as usual”. Folks, $8.7 BILLION is a lot of money by anyone’s standards. That money will provide a lot of health care in the US. It may even save YOUR life. Where are the Neocons, Fox News and the imperialist plutocrats on this one? What the hell is going on in the Pentagon? I don’t hate the military but how does this shit get explained? Again, $8.7 BILLION, that’s a lot of money. A lot of people can relate to the small graft but can’t get their heads around the real rip-offs. Shame on all of us. I’m willing to make a heavy bet that no one gets convicted or spends serious time in jail over this. This story will just disappear because the general populous can’t relate to the “real” crimes. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/2 "2010-07-28T05:28:33Z")
Outrage fatigue. The story of billions mysteriously vanishing into Iraq was old news at least five years ago. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/3 "2010-07-28T06:24:13Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Outrage fatigue. The story of billions mysteriously vanishing into Iraq was old news at least five years ago. Yea, you are right but if a blowjob was part of it we would see headlines for a month and the investigation into it would have no monetary constraints. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/4 "2010-07-28T07:53:15Z")
If it was American money, people might care. It wasn’t. Blackwater, Halliburton et al were bribed with Iraqui money, so no one cares. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/5 "2010-07-28T08:12:53Z")
Ten years ago their accountants lost track of $2.3 TRILLION! $8.7 billion is chump change. I wonder if they’ve checked down the sofa? ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/6 "2010-07-28T08:22:33Z")
And that was just what they admitted to. Bearing in mind their general reluctance to tell the public any truth that doesn’t show them in a good light, you could probably multiply that figure a couple of times and still not be near the truth. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/7 "2010-07-28T12:31:56Z")
This happened on Bush’s watch, so: •Talking about it is ‘Bush Bashing’ •It’s time to move on. •IOKIYAAR. •Don’t you really kinda miss him anyway? ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/8 "2010-07-28T12:37:20Z")
I heard he’s planning a comeback and making a film with Mr Bean? I think the working title is “Dumb And Dumb As Fuck In A Bucket”. I wonder which one Dubya is? I have my guess, but let’s see what others think. ---
**Author:** ![jinty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dbc845/32.png) [@jinty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jinty)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/9 "2010-07-28T12:56:16Z")
> [@R.P.McMurphy](#): > > Yea, you are right but if a blowjob was part of it we would see headlines for a month and the investigation into it would have no monetary constraints. As Stalin might say, one blowjob is a tragedy, eight billion dollars is a statistic. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/10 "2010-07-28T13:20:59Z")
Feels like deja vu all over again. I’m sure I’ve heard [this story](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=407506) before. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/11 "2010-07-28T13:24:59Z")
This is old news, as has already been noted. As for the outrage, I think this sort of thing (plus all the other crap) is what sent the Republicans packing in '06 and '08. That was serious “Bush Bashing”, regardless of anyone implying that it doesn’t or shouldn’t happen. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/12 "2010-07-28T13:47:53Z")
Dunno about that. I didn’t personally hold money lost by the Pentagon against Bush, even if it was his fault that there was an opportunity to lose money, as it were. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/13 "2010-07-28T14:07:07Z")
> [@](#): > > This story will just blow away. Yet, if some welfare mom in Detroit gets an extra $10 in food stamps the press is all over it. Considering that the oversight happened starting in 2003 and that this was news in 2007, I’d say that it hasn’t blown away yet. As to your other assertion here, I haven’t seen anything in the news about welfare moms getting $10 extra…do you have a cite? 😛 > [@](#): > > We can’t afford health care reform but we can plow unaccounted for money into Iraq corruption as though it is just “business as usual”. Well, two things…first, it was Iraqi money, not US money. Unless you are talking about health care reform in Iraq, your statement here makes no sense. Then there is the scale issue… > [@](#): > > Folks, $8.7 BILLION is a lot of money by anyone’s standards. …namely, this. $8.7 billion (even when you capitalize it, so to speak) really ISN’T a lot of money, not by US government standards. Health care is going to cost over an order of magnitude more than this…$8.7 wouldn’t even be a drop in the bucket. Hell, NASA’s budget is bigger than this, and they aren’t exactly well funded. > [@](#): > > I’m willing to make a heavy bet that no one gets convicted or spends serious time in jail over this. Probably not. For one thing, it was Iraqi money. For another, it seems that the lack of oversight and management of the funds was systematically lacking. In that environment, it’s pretty common and natural for government (or private) organizations to look on the money as a windfall and use it to pay for the parts of their budgets that are discretionary. I don’t know what you think happened to the money, but my guess is that the majority was spent by the organizations getting it for their own budgets on things they wouldn’t normally have gotten or would have had to go back and justify in order to get the money to pay for them. > [@](#): > > This story will just disappear because the general populous can’t relate to the “real” crimes. That seems to be your over riding theme here, but then your entire OP seems to be full of misinformation and maundering laments about how things you think are news worthy don’t make it in the news (the key point being that YOU don’t think they are), while vital stuff like this that’s been hanging around for years and is STILL in the news, you seem to think should, well, be news worthy. -XT ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/14 "2010-07-28T14:07:47Z")
@ **RNATB** If you’d thought any of it was being funneled towards his buddies you’d be bothered tho’, wouldn’t you? You don’t even think that could be likely, knowing what a money-loving shit he is? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/15 "2010-07-28T14:12:26Z")
Well, considering how much was _openly_ being funneled towards his buddies, I don’t see much point in quietly giving them more under the table. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/16 "2010-07-28T14:22:57Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Well, considering how much was _openly_ being funneled towards his buddies, I don’t see much point in quietly giving them more under the table. That was probably just a false paper trail leading to the more deniable stuff. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/17 "2010-07-28T14:30:14Z")
Well, think of all the money they made bringing down the twin towers or in the Pentagon attack! All that money is hidden, and it was billions…BILLIONS and BILLIONS!! -XT ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/18 "2010-07-28T14:46:22Z")
> [@jinty](#): > > As Stalin might say, one blowjob is a tragedy, eight billion dollars is a statistic. 😃 And eight billion blowjobs is a dislocated jaw. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/19 "2010-07-28T17:41:47Z")
Unaccounted for money does not mean stolen or wasted, it just means that the paperwork and recording keeping was not done properly. Paperwork often gets short shrift in a war zone, recall Wellington’s famous letter to London while in Spain. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272/20 "2010-07-28T18:28:39Z")
Wellington’s “famous letter” is almost undoubtedly a hoax. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pentagon-cant-account-for-8-7-billion-of-iraqi-aid-money-wheres-the-outrage/548272.md?page=2)