U.S.: Despite surplus, Iraq can't yet fund its security | Philadelphia Inquirer | 09/15/2010: "Iraq might be running a budget surplus, but that doesn't mean it should spend it, U.S. officials said Tuesday, arguing that the Iraqi government's finances are too fragile for it to pay a greater share of its security costs.
The Obama administration commented in response to a new U.S. government study that found that Iraq had a surplus of $52.1 billion at the end of 2009, including $11.8 billion available to be spent.
The study by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, provided ammunition to lawmakers who have argued that the United States should not run up its own budget deficit to bankroll the Pentagon's military training mission in Iraq.
The study concluded, 'Iraq has the potential to further contribute toward its security needs, even as it addresses other competing priorities.'
The administration, which has asked Congress to approve $2 billion for training and equipping Iraqi military and police in fiscal 2011, said that carrying out the GAO recommendation could put Iraq at financial risk and jeopardize the United States' interests in a country where it has spent, by the report's calculation, $642 billion in military operations since 2003."
