So James Baker III was sent to get France, Germany and Russia to drop their claims on billions in Iraqi debt owed to them.

The logic is that the money was owed by a dictator who is no longer in power.

Annoyingly unreported is the fact that it was those same Iraqi billions that were already claimed and spent by US forces in the first months of the war. Only after those bucks were gone did the White House go to Congress for more money.

Then there're the startling accusations of US government looting of Iraqi money, such as this one made by a Christian aid NGO.