At 04:28 PM 4/10/03 -0700, Bill Frantz wrote:

At 2:41 PM -0700 4/10/03, Major Variola (ret) wrote: Face it, Iraq has plenty of wealth to pay back

...

investors and locals. All you need is enough warships to guarantee that you *will* recover costs.

I'm not sure about this one. An article in this morning's San Jose Mercury News indicated that Iraq's international debt (commercial to Russians, and compensatory to Kuwait to name just two) amounts to about 32 years oil production.

The Russians? Bwah hah hah. Yeah, they (and the French, and the Krauts) can get all the Saddam-faced bills they want. Can you spell default? I knew you could. Still, 32 years at current prices, perhaps, but in 30 years the price of oil will have risen. And also, the financial biz has no problem with 30 year ROI, see the home-mortgage industry. Besides, after we hang the Saudis, and liberate Venezuala (sp), the USG will be able to set the price of oil for the US-external market. Ka-ching.