Would you like to donate a part of your personal budget to help Iraq get back on its feet? President Bush has made it easy for you to contribute to Iraq's reconstruction. Just visit:www.iraqpartnership.org
Pick a project, click the "Give Now" button, and have your credit card info handy.
Oddly, the site was launched two weeks ago but has yet to collect more than $600 US dollars. That's a drop in the bucket considering $30 billion is expected to be needed.
According to the Guardian:
"It is understood to be the first time that a US government has made an appeal to taxpayers for foreign aid money. Contributors have no way of knowing who will receive their donations or even where they may go, after officials said details had be kept secret for security reasons."
I must say, in light of the recent disappearance of Iraq's ENTIRE defense budget, confirmed by Iraq's current Finance Minister, I don't think I'd give a cent without a very transparent accounting of its use. Also, I understand that my taxes are contributing to the $100 billion/year the US is spending in Iraq for just that purpose.
(I even visited costofwar.com which gave an estimate of the pay-out from just my community. I was flabbergasted.)
I hear the administration is concerned that all this money may run out before its work there is completed, so they're making a plea to private citizens. I suggest instead that someone in the administration take a refresher course in personal finance. Budgeting really isn't that difficult, Mr. President. Just balance your debits and credits each month so you don't land in the red. Even I can do that.
Links:
Donation site:
www.iraqpartnership.org
Launch of Donation site:
USAID Administrator Natsios Announces Launch of IraqPartnership.org
Cost of war:
National Priorities Project: Cost of War in Iraq
Guardian article:
Bush plea for cash to rebuild Iraq raises $600
4 comments:
Hey, don't sneeze at $600. We're now one 200-millionth of the way there! Of course that looks like a small fraction - compare it, for example, to the 1/250 ratio of 400 pro-war demonstrators on Sunday relative to the 100,000+ anti-war demonstratorts the previous day...but you know what they say about a journey of a thousand miles beginning with a fewe angstroms.
Besides, those 400 were prolly hard-working blue-collar red-staters, as differentiated from the Hollywood elites who composed the bulk of the Saturday crowd, so they can't be expected to come up with the whole 300 gigabucks. Instead, all our descendants for the next several generations will have to pitch in and help. It's only right (wing).
Still, a measly buck and a half apiece? They could have beaten that number by just staying home and donating what they wound up spending on the gas to get their Hummers and SUVs down to Washington for the big rally.
Measley sure does describe it.
It's hard to resolve. I mean, I know there are lots of people who support the war, who have publicly and enthusiastically stated their wish to see Iraq make it as a viable democracy. Why don't they give? I know that Dick Cheney supports the war, and Condoleezza Rice, Rumsfeld, and of course all the Bushes. I can't image they wouldn't make a donation.
It seems to me that the existence of this web site asking for money to support the war in Iraq is an admittance of failure. The Bush administration failed to budget or plan carefully enough for the total mess they have made in Iraq. Our troops are ill equipped and undermanned and now Bush is admitting that we can’t afford it. If the war is such a good idea why hasn’t Bush contributed. After all his family are multimillionaires. They are worth many, many, many times more than the average American and so is that Dick Cheney. Also all of the Republicans who support the war could contribute. Wouldn’t you think that all of the Bush administration officials would contribute? Does anyone believe enough to contribute? $600.00 is a joke. How are we going to finance tax cuts for wealthy American if the common folk, the wage earners, are so cheap?
I just checked the donation website. It's been updated in the two days since I wrote this post. They're now reporting $1055 in money collected.
It's not nothing. But I have to agree with sans fromage, it's a joke. I just read that $1.4 billion has been raised in private donations for Katrina victims in about the same period of time:
http://philanthropy.com/
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