mr. chairman , i just want to clarify one point the gentleman from massachusetts made about the $ 8.8 billion , and i just think we members need to understand we are talking about funds that came not from the united states taxpayers , but those $ 8.8 billion are funds from the iraqi fund , which was iraqi dinars that had been collected as a result of oil sales . 
it was a chaotic situation at the end of the war , as we all know , and ministries had collapsed . 
there was no communication . 
there were no accounting systems . 
the bureaucrats had not functioned for years . 
it was very difficult , at the very best , to know how to handle those in the very best way . 
it was really a choice of whether or not we were going to get the projects done as quickly as possible and get the country functioning again . 
so i think , to me , the choice was fairly clear . 
i just want to make people understand we are not talking about u.s. dollars when we talk about the 8.8 . 
