a billion here ... a billion there...

and pretty soon you're talking about real money. Except that it is already real to me, and to all the other citizens of this country that pay taxes. It is bad enough that we are funding this absurd and pointless exercise, but to have pallets full of cash disappearing into the rapacious maw of avaricious thieves hiding behind the military or the flag makes me want to puke. Of $8 billion paid to U.S. and Iraqi contractors, nearly every transaction failed to comply with federal laws or regulations aimed at preventing fraud, in some cases lacking even basic invoices explaining how the money was spent. Thanks to Robert Gates and Donald Rumsfeld, the two SecDefs in charge of this plundering of the American treasury.