6/30/2004 07:45:54 AM|||Nathan Moore|||

I think we should just go ahead with it - put a multi-pointy little hat on the man with the respective number of bells, dress him up in a jumpsuit adorned with all sorts of bright colors, hammers, sickles, and the like, and send him on the next Osmond tour.

That's how serious Paul Krugman actually deserves to be treated. But here in the blogosphere, serious discourse must rule the day.

The latest Krugman column is here (link requires registration). The former Enron advisor purports to tell us all how we lost Iraq. Lost Iraq?

figures on insurgent attacks and civilian casualties show a security situation that got progressively worse, not better;

Yes, see, Saddam Hussein was better because he provided "security." And, oh my, there is more

Defenders of the administration will no doubt say that Christian Aid and other critics have no proof that the unaccounted-for billions were ill spent. But think of it this way: given the Arab world's suspicion that we came to steal Iraq's oil, the occupation authorities had every incentive to expedite an independent audit that would clear Halliburton and other U.S. corporations of charges that they were profiteering at Iraq's expense. Unless, that is, the charges are true.

Ahh...Halliburton, profiteering, bad, feeling feverish, no longer coherent...I think it was your theory, Mr. Krugman, along with the rest of the far left, that we were there only for the oil. But since we didn't actually take the oil, Halliburton must be profiteering. In no way is it possible that NONE OF THIS IS HAPPENING! On the heels of the fact that none of this is happening, Krugman is simply more convinced that it is.

The Iraqis didn't get any benefit from the oil anyhow before we got there. Thanks to Saddam Hussein, the United Nations, and Russian, German and French "cronies", to borrow a moniker so casually thrown about, billions of dollars of oil revenues earmarked to feed the Iraqi people never got there.

To put things in perspective, check out my post below on the successes and progress in Iraq relative to other rebuilding projects the American democracy machine has undertaken. Of course, I'm sure someone made money in Germany in 1945, too. Maybe Krugman will write a scathing column about Harry Truman and his friends in Missouri soon.


UPDATE Halliburton shows its favor with the Bush administration by losing money.

|||108860049067415032|||Paul Krugman - Jester