While listening to the news on the radio, I heard an interesting bit about "Odious Debt" relief. The conversation on the radio was about the amount of money that Iraq owes to the rest of the world because of Saddam Hussein. And, when you factor in the cost of the current war, the Iraqi people will be in the neighborhood of $250 billion (US$) in debt. Of course, this includes the cost of the current war because the loser always pays. Hmmmm..but since the whole point of this war is to turn the Iraqis into a nation of democratically minder winners shouldn't we pay the bill, or at least go "dutch" this time?

Back to the point: "Odious Debt" is what a government, when in power, amasses in loans, trade imbalances, etcetera, after it falls from grace. This whole "Odious Debt" can 'morally', if not legally, be written off by the new (improved) government, if they can prove that none of the monies owed were ever used for the benefit of the populace. But, then this new (improved) government will find it rather tough finding someone the money to rebuild their country.

This got me to thinking about if this old government was so corrupt and venal in the first place, why in the fuck did the world banking community loan them the money in the firat place? And more specifically, if the whole world has known that Saddam Hussein was such a brutal, murderous, no-good, lily-livered, yella' bellied, sonofabitch whyy did they loan him all of this money? Christ, I can't walk into a bank if I am a convicted felon and borrow enough money to make a phone call, but if I am a genocidal head of an oil rich Middle East nation, the world is my oyster.

So I guess when all is said and done, the Iraqi people will freed from the enslavement of a brutal dictator named Saddam for one named Crushing Debt.