A Couple of Billion? Aw, Pocket Change.

There is one aspect of our Excellent Adventure in Iraq and the response to it which continues to mystify me. Despite the continuously increasing and massive evidence of crony statism and corporate corruption inherent in our"rebuilding" efforts, many supporters of our foreign policy don't seem to be troubled by this issue at all. This is even more puzzling when you consider that many of those same supporters describe themselves as"libertarians" of various hues -- and that all this is being done with money belonging to U.S. taxpayers.

Don't they care at all that money is taken from innocent, law-abiding citizens at the point of a gun -- and then transferred to fantastically wealthy and powerful companies who have the right connections in Washington? And don't they care at all that it's their money that is going down the drain? To judge from the comments of many such people, it appears they don't.

So this won't bother them either:

Halliburton Co. did not adequately account for more than $1.8 billion it billed the government for work in Iraq and Kuwait, a published report on the findings of Pentagon auditors said Wednesday.

The results of the audit, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, were the latest financial headache for Houston-based Halliburton's subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, which filed for bankruptcy protection last year to resolve billions of dollars in pending asbestos claims.

The $1.8 billion amounts to 40 percent of the $4.18 billion KBR has already billed the Pentagon for its work feeding and housing military troops. The Pentagon could begin withholding payments from KBR if it determines it is owed money - though it has yet to do so. ...

The audit, part of a report dated Aug. 4 that has yet to be made public, found that KBR's"internal control policies" are"inadequate for providing verifiable, supportable, and documented cost estimates that are acceptable for negotiating a fair and reasonable price." Pentagon officials told the newspaper that that no defense contractor has had its estimating system ruled"inadequate" in years.

Auditors' concerns included more than $900 million in payments for dozens of dining facilities; auditors say that more than a third of those costs may be unjustified, the newspaper said. Auditors also are examining $180 million in costs charged for fuel from Kuwait that was delivered to Iraq.

And I'm sure the Religious Right is mightily relieved to find that all those libertarians and like-minded folks who support Bush's foreign policy are actually such kind-hearted, generous and altruistic folks, who are so, so happy to give their (and your) money away to all those deserving and oppressed companies and then see it vanish down the drain.

Why, it's positively Christian of them. I think it's just swell.