This is OUR money they're spending, folks...

After watching a 60 Minutes section last night showing how 1,000 Australian troops in Iraq are currently deployed to escort seven (7!) Australian diplomats from their fortified houses to their fortified offices each day, I wake up to read this report from SignOnSanDiego.com:

"...despite rock-bottom wages for Iraqi construction workers ? the cost of construction in Iraq is expected to be higher than comparable building work in the United States. Ten percent of the construction funds will be eaten up by safeguarding building sites and workers from attacks by anti-U.S. guerrillas."

Who's paying for all this waste? Australian, UK and US taxpayers. And, eventually, the Iraqi people, who are going deeper and deeper in debt thanks to shady deals signed off by an illegitimate US puppet interim council.

Who's profiting from it all? Private contractors like Halliburton who are keeping on the good side of the GOP with big political donations. And how about this for a look at privatisation gone loco - the CIA has set up its own venture-capital tech startup. That's right, US taxpayers are paying companies like "In-Q-Tel" to supply the technology the spooks need to do their job. Like all the other Bush military adventures, you can bet these costs aren't included in the increasingly fictional US budget.