Benderman Defense Trust

 Read the following stories, if you will, and ask yourself why couldn't this administration forgive the personal debt of all of the service members fighting in Iraq. It was a question I asked in 2004 and I still do not have a good answer. I think the AMERICAN SERVICE MEMBERS have and continue to provide tremedous support to the Iraqi people and to this administration. I think if we can spend nearly 700 billion (at least) to fight a war then the people fighting in it should not have to worry about their bills. Just a thought

Baker visiting 5 allies seeking Iraq debt relief
by the Associated Press, The Boston Globe, Dec. 11, 2003
Washington: On the heels of a Pentagon directive barring France, Germany and Russia from bidding on prime Iraq reconstruction contracts worth more than $18 billion, former U.S. Secretary of State, James A. Baker, will visit all three countries next week to persuade them to forgive Iraq's debts. Said White House spokesman Scott McClellan, "The whole restructuring debt issue is an important priority for the Iraqi people. We all share the same goal of helping the Iraqi people build a better and brighter future, and they should not be saddled with the debt of a brutal regime that was more interested in using funds to build palaces and build torture chambers and brutalize the Iraqi people." Baker leaves Monday for the trip, which McClellan characterized as "an initial fact-finding mission." France, Germany and Russia opposed the U.S. war in Iraq and are among Iraq's largest creditors.
www.odiousdebts.org/odiousdebts/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=9101

Bush asks excluded nations to forgive Iraq's debt
by David E. Sanger and Douglas Jehl, New York Times, Dec. 11, 2003
President Bush found himself in the awkward position Wednesday of calling the leaders of France, Germany and Russia to ask them to forgive Iraq's debts, just a day after the Pentagon excluded those countries, and others such as Canada and China, from $18 billion in U.S.-financed Iraqi reconstruction projects. Countries excluded were seething. Russia's defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, when asked about the Pentagon decision, responded by ruling out any debt write-off for Iraq.
http://www.odiousdebts.org/odiousdebts/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=9094

James Baker: Negotiating through a minefield of debt
NewsMax.com, Dec. 6, 2003
Can Iraq's debt be classified as odious? Yes, say many experts. Officials from Iraq and some creditor countries are developing an arbitration tribunal to assess which of the financial claims on Saddam Hussein's regime should legally and justly pass on to the Iraqi people.
www.odiousdebts.org/odiousdebts/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=9107

Iraq debt write-off plea waits for PM
by K.P. Nayar, The Telegraph (Calcutta, India), Dec. 7, 2003
Saying "No" to America on the request for troops in Iraq was easy. For South and North Blocks, the next phase of US pressure on India in sorting out the post-war mess is going to be much more difficult. James Baker III, the Bush family's trusted trouble-shooter and secretary of state to the first President Bush, will arrive in Delhi some time soon to ask Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to write off all the money Saddam Hussein owed Indian companies for the work they did in Baathist Iraq. But if Vajpayee agrees, Indian taxpayers will be the losers, not Indian firms which put up projects in India. This is because a considerable portion of Saddam's dues to these firms has already been taken over by the government.
www.odiousdebts.org/odiousdebts/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=9089

Rebuilding policy is conflicted
Saudi Gazette editorial, Dec. 12, 2003
"Iraqis cannot effectively rebuild their country and rejoin the global community unless they can get out from underneath their government's staggering debt. It, and the war reparations, need to be forgiven."
www.odiousdebts.org/odiousdebts/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=9115

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