In the last seven days, the Iraqi government made an estimated $8.9 million dollars profit off its sale of sweet crude to the US; naturally there were the usual admin fees we had to pay…

1. The lives of 19 American soldiers. Not that we care about the troops, they are now considered collateral damage when compared to the economy.

2. Pay the wages for the regular Iraqi military.

3. Pay the $10 per day per man fee we promised the civilian militia groups not to kill US troops; that the civilian militia group says the Iraqi government hasn't passed on to them.

4. Pay all the contractors.

5. Pay for all materials and handle all the logistics.

According to the General Accounting Office in Washington, D.C., the known cost is $177 million per day or $1.239 billion for this week. They didn't know what the CIA and other intelligent arms of the US government spent. I didn't bother to add in the cost for the sweet crude. We got the use of that oil ourselves.

I don't know about other Americans, but I for one want to thank George W. Bush and his administration for this deal, and I'm hopeful that they'll work out something along these same lines with Iran, Pakistan and Syria real soon. Otherwise, our only hope of getting more of these deals is John McCain; and that's scary because he switches direction more than Mitt Romney switches wives, but that's okay since Romney's a Mormon.

Bob Miller Writes