Efficient insurgency

In a recent video, New York Times’ Baghdad Bureau Chief John F. Burns asserts that the Iraq insurgency is self-financed and indefinitely sustained through a massive $2 billion heist in cash from the country’s central bank, continued oil theft, currency counterfeiting and kidnapping.

According to Burns, a US intelligence agency estimates that the insurgency costs less than $200 million a year to operate. Contrast that with our military burning $8 billion a month in Iraq. The insurgents spend less in one year of fighting than the US forces spend in one day!