From the ‘Sorry we tortured your uncle, raped your wife, blew your kid’s legs off and destroyed your home and livelihood, but at least we’re giving you cheap gas!’ Department:

We’re paying $2.09 in Ann Arbor for a gallon of gas this week. Meanwhile, « Baghdad drivers are paying 5 CENTS a gallon, » thanks to the billions of dollars we’re sending them:

‘While Americans are shelling out record prices for fuel, Iraqis pay only about 5 cents a gallon for gasoline—a benefit of hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies bankrolled by American taxpayers. Before the war, forecasters predicted that by invading Iraq and ousting Saddam Hussein, America would benefit from increased exports of oil from Iraq, which has the world’s second-largest petroleum reserves. That would mean cheap gas for American motorists and a boost for the oil-dependent American economy.

More than a year after the invasion, that logic has been flipped on its head. Now the average price for gasoline in the United States is $2.05 a gallon—50 cents more than the pre-invasion price. Instead, the only people getting cheap gas as a result of the invasion are the Iraqis. Filling a 22-gallon tank in Baghdad with low-grade fuel costs just $1.10, plus a 50-cent tip for the attendant. A tankful of high-test costs $2.75. In Britain, by contrast, gasoline prices hit $5.79 per gallon last week—$127 for a tankful.

…

The U.S. government paid even more last year for Iraqis’ gasoline—between $1.59 and $1.70 per gallon—when the imports were contracted to Halliburton, the Texas oil services giant formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. … Iraqi drivers protest that the price difference between a gallon of gas in the United States and Iraq is fair because the average Iraqi earns around $1,000 per year, a thirtieth of the average U.S. wage.’

Ain’t it all lovely? Yet one more Neo-Con lie. But, hey. We broke it, we bought it, I suppose.