An ambassador \u00e2\u20ac\u201c his name happens to be Timothy Carney \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an Iraqi, and a penguin walk into a bar. The bartender asks how the Iraqi will ever possibly pay for his drink. The ambassador replies:<\/p>\n
“The point to make there is that Iraq is basically a rich country; that in fact there’s been a successful effort to mightily reduce the debt that Iraq had incurred during the Saddam Hussein era. I would argue that as Iraq returns to its former levels of 3 million-plus barrels a day of oil exported, that you’re going to find as much money as the country needs for the major portion of this effort at maintenance and sustainment as you’ve defined it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Oh wait, I think I’ve already heard this joke before; but back in March 2003, it went like this:<\/p>\n
A Deputy Secretary of Defense \u00e2\u20ac\u201c his name was Paul Wolfowitz \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an Iraqi exile, and a penguin walk into the House Committee on Appropriations. A Congressman asks how the invasion and occupation the Bush administration has just launched will be paid for. The Deputy Secretary of Defense replies<\/a> that our “Second Iraq War” won’t be “overly expensive for American taxpayers”: “There’s a lot<\/a> of money to pay for this that doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.”<\/p>\n