The Democrats are planning to push legislation through this spring that would force the Iraqi government to spend its own surplus in oil revenues to rebuild the country.
Lacking the votes to order troops home by a certain date, Democrats see fencing off reconstruction money as an alternative to challenging the Bush administration’s Iraq policies.
According to Senator Carl Levin, Iraq has about $30 billion in surplus funds stored in U.S. banks. Iraq is also looking at a potential boon in oil revenue this year, possibly as much as $100 billion in 2007 and 2008.
So the country may be in ruins, but at least the bank balance is healthy..