November 15, 2004
[Have an opinion about this column? Visit the Secrecy
News discussion forum.]
WAR WITHOUT A TAX INCREASE AND AN INEXPENSIVE PEACE
The Bush Administration's policy of cutting taxes while launching
a war in Iraq
is extraordinary, but is it unprecedented? Not quite.
"It seems hard to believe," wrote historian Otto Friedrich in a
history of Berlin in the 1920s, "but the incredible fact is that
Imperial Germany's conservative finance officials never levied a
single mark in extra taxes to pay the gigantic costs of World
War I."
"The German government planned, apparently, to recover its expenses
out of the reparations that the enemy would have to pay once Hindenburg
and Ludendorff had captured Paris."
But as it turned out, it was France that ended up demanding reparations
from Germany, with fateful consequences, not the other way around.
(O. Friedrich, "Before the Deluge," 1995 edition, p. 60).
One recalls the illusory assurances of the Bush Administration that
the rebuilding of Iraq would cost American taxpayers a grand total
of $1.7 billion.
"You're not suggesting that the rebuilding of Iraq is gonna be done
for $1.7 billion?" asked an incredulous Ted Koppel in a 2003 ABC
News Nightline interview with Andrew Natsios, then-administrator
of the Agency for International Development (AID).
"Well, in terms of the American taxpayers' contribution, I do, this
is it for the US," Mr. Natsios replied.
"The rest of the rebuilding of Iraq will be done by other countries
who have already made pledges, Britain, Germany, Norway, Japan,
Canada, and Iraqi oil revenues, eventually in several years, when
it's up and running and there's a new government that's been democratically
elected, will finish the job with their own revenues. They're going
to get in $20 billion a year in oil revenues. But the American part
of this will be 1.7 billion. We have no plans for any further-on
funding for this."
The transcript of this April 23, 2003 Nightline interview was quietly
removed from the AID web site last year (as reported by the Washington
Post on 12/18/03). But a copy is preserved here (thanks to BY):
http://www.fas.org/sgp/temp/natsios042303.html
SUPPORT SECRECY NEWS
Secrecy News has a big hole in its budget for the coming year. Can
you help?
If you have learned something useful, valuable or interesting from
Secrecy News over the past year, then please consider supporting
this publication and the work of the FAS Project on Government Secrecy.
Donations may be made online here (click "donate now" and make sure
to designate your contribution for "Secrecy News"):
http://www.guidestar.org/helping/donate.adp?ein=23-7185827
Or mail a check payable to the Federation of American Scientists
to:
Secrecy News
Federation of American Scientists
1717 K Street NW, Suite 209
Washington, DC 20036
© 2004, Federation of American Scientists.
All opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not
necessarily reflect those of Military.com.
|
