No, Wait, Look Over There...

... while this other hand is busy moving taxpayer money around. Rumsfeld yesterday blamed Congress for underfunding the effort to rebuild the Iraqi army and police. Contributor Payson at ThinkProgress remembers a news story from a month ago, in which it was reported that 60% of the money allocated by Congress for that task had not been spent by the DoD.

Lessee, it was Rumsfeld that diverted--without informing Congress--$700 million of the money appropriated for the war in Afghanistan to pay for the planning of the invasion of Iraq. When Congress found out, there was barely a murmur of dissatifaction, thus setting the stage for the same thing again. 60% of the quoted $7 billion is a little over $4 billion, probably enough to buy serious amounts of munitions and jet fuel for use in Iran.

A billion dollars buys about 4000 GBU-37 GPS-guided 4700-lb. bunker-busting bombs. A billion dollars buys about 400 million gallons of jet fuel. A billion dollars buys roughly 425,000 1-ton dumb bombs. And, as we know, $700 million buys the planning and targeting for a major campaign. If that $4.2 billion above were being used for that purpose, it would leave half a billion for odds and ends and a few nuclear weapons, just in case Dick can convince George that it was Jesus' idea to nuke Iran in the first place.

Maybe Rummy thinks blaming Congress is clever prestidigitation, but not now, not in the age of instant recall. Or, it could be that Rummy only knows old tricks. Hey, Rummy, got a few billion-dollar bills up your sleeve? And who do they belong to?