Philippines $1m pledge to help Iraq

[Barrett808]

Philippines $1m pledge to help Iraq
From correspondents in Manila
October 22, 2003

THE Philippines is to pledge one million dollars for the reconstruction of war-torn Iraq at a donors' meeting in Spain this week, diplomatic sources said today.

The Philippine Embasssy in Baghdad had relayed Manila's pledge to the US-supervised provisional authority in Iraq as early as last month, the sources said.

It is not clear where the government, which is saddled by a huge budget deficit, will get the money, the sources said, adding that Manila may tap the private sector to help raise the funds.

The US, Spain, European Union and other countries and institutions are to hold a two-day conference in Madrid from Thursday to help Baghdad recover following the ousting of strongman Saddam Hussein by American-led forces.

(more)

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7637314%255E1702,00.html

[Sagan]

1. can you say "token"?

They don't even have the money! * is merely on another fundraiser, this time for his Iraqi misadventure. This isn't diplomacy, this is BEGGING.

[Beetwasher]

2. That's actually a slap in the face

How pathetic. A million dollars?!? Whoop de doo! Don't spend it all in one place boys! Make sure it's in cash too!

[Guaranteed]

6. How many zip codes

does Iraq get for a million bucks?

[German-Lefty]

3. Give em $100 million and they'll give you a cent on the dolar back :-)

U.S. MILITARY COMMITMENT - Philippines military aid - 2002

Troops: 160 Army Special Forces soldiers and about 500 support troops. Other aid: $100 million in military assistance; military gear, including C-130 transport plane, eight Huey helicopters, patrol boats, M-16 rifles, grenade launchers and mortars.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2002/020210-attack01.htm


Bush has to pay people to be our "friends".

[dbt]

4. Boy, that would pay Bremer's expenses for about a week!

How many Filipino children would that money feed for how long?

:argh:
dbt

[OneBlueSky]

7. or Halliburton's overhead for a day . . . maybe . . . n/t

.

[snippy]

5. One million? One million? How Bush league.

[fob]

8. Let's see. Costs are about $4 billion per month, or $1 billion per week

divided by 7 days, divided by 24 hours per day divided by 60 minutes per hour = approx $99,000 per minute. So that million will pay for a solid 10 minutes with around $10,000 to spare!

Thanks! That oughta cover it.

fob

[Zero Gravitas]

9. puts pinky to corner of mouth

one MILLION dollars!

LOL thats a bigger insult than not giving any money at all! Its the equivalent of tpping a dime for lousy service at a resturant.

Halliburton wouldn't even get out of bed for a lousy $1,000,000.

[underpants]

10. US companies can't even build 1/15th of a cement factory with that

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101031027-524462,00.html

$15 million Value of a contract awarded to an American firm to build a cement factory in Iraq with taxpayer dollars

$80,000 Amount an Iraqi businessman spent (using Saddam's confiscated funds) to build the same factory, after delays prevented the American firm from doing it

[jeanmarc]

11. 86,999 more 'points of light' and we have a winner!

Now where can we find 86,999 other countries to make such a generous gesture?

[Gman]

12. That's chump change

I hope Bush understands that the $1m is a well deserved insult and slap in the face.