Getting Stolen Iraqi Money Back

It'd be an interesting analysis to see the economic incentives of the Iraqi insurgency.

Iraq is going after the nations and foreign officials who worked with Saddam Hussein to loot the "Oil for Food" program (a UN administered arrangement that allowed Iraq to export oil in exchange for food and humanitarian supplies) in the 1990s. Saddam diverted much of the money to himself and foreign political and trade officials who cooperated in the scam. Russian, French and UN officials were the major players, and most have escaped prosecution so far. This is part of an effort to recover some of the money (over $100 billion) that Saddam and his cronies stole from the nation over three decades, but particularly in the 1990s, and often moved out of the country.

100 bil buys a lot of roadside bombs and full time terrorists. For those who criticize our new policy of bribing the Sunnis into fighting on our side, consider that's exactly what the former Baathists and their allies were doing to fund the insurgency.