Ten billion isn’t the half of it and I’ve been saying, let’s get a Truman Commission established and start peeling back the onion of the outright crimminal activities of this Administration when it came to managing our money. If a CEO of any company allowed 10’s of billions of dollars  squandered or stolen to be given to cronies and favored companies (no bid), he’d be sitting in jail. Let’s not forget, this is our money, our tax dollars they were throwing it away and we have a right for some accountability.

An audit showing about $ 10 billion has been squandered in Iraq should give members of Congress pause when they consider President Bush’s gigantic war budget next month.

In any war, at least some money is wasted. But the massive amounts that have disappeared in Iraq are far beyond the pale.

According to the audit, more than one in six dollars charged by U. S. contractors in Iraq were questionable or unsupportable. The amount of waste is nearly triple the estimate made last fall by the Government Accountability Office.

The auditors faulted Defense and State department officials for condoning or allowing overcharges, repeated work delays and payments for shoddy work or jobs that were never done.

There is, in fact, “ no accountability” for the contractors in Iraq, said U. S. Comptroller General David M. Walker, who heads the auditing arm of Congress.

The auditors discovered overpricing and waste in Iraq contracts totaling $ 4. 9 billion since the Defense Contract Audit Agency began work in 2003. While some of that money has been recovered, an additional $ 5. 1 billion in expenses were charged without proper documentation. Congress is considering stiffened penalties for war profiteers. It also wants to find ways to cut cronyism in contracting. At the same time, Congress needs to be careful about giving its stamp of approval next month when considering Bush’s request for nearly $ 100 billion to finance wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The direction of the war is dubious enough without the massive rip-off of public money that has accompanied it. — The Tuscaloosa (Ala. ) News