What would the New York Times' war coverage be without John Burns?
Less pessimistic than this Week in Review piece on how roadside bombings and civilian death tolls are beginning to creep back up into pre-surge levels is Burns' brilliant video dispatch about how Saddam had been planning for just these postwar conditions for months before the coalition invasion.
According to Burns, Baathist thugs shepherded $2 billion in cash in steel trunks just the day we entered Baghdad. This money had been used to finance the Al Qaeda and Sunni Baathist insurgency, however, whether or not any of it is left begs the question, how is it that the insurgency continues its daily slaughter of civilians and military personnel? Through theft (oil pipelines are routinely tapped for ciphoning off Iraq's most lucrative natural resource), counterfeiting, and through kidnapping and exortion efforts. In the other words, the bad guys, in true gangster fashion, have grown self-sufficient. They require no longer require a state sponsor.
Now here's the most chilling fact from this video: According to leaked Pentagon records, the United States spends $8 billion a month in keeping the war afloat. The insurgency spends $200 million a year. That means the insurgency spends less money in a year than what the American military spends in a single day.
Watch the video here.
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