will we charge iraq for downed aircraft?

I don't think that demanding reparations are part of the plan. Quite the opposite, really.

Nah, we'll make France and Germany pay for them

(are you listening Morpheus?)

hmm actually an interesting question. i just wonder though that it seems to me that both the british and americans have taken out more of each others planes etc than the iraqis have (keep in mind i really have not paid much attention to the war since last friday). seems that maybe the allies might be stuck with the tab of replacing the crafts they have taken out.

just a different view on the issue

i know it seemed like a wierd question, but..

i didn't know if there was some wierd thing germany or japan had to do after those wars

Germany had to pay HUGE reparations after WWI.

It was one of the things (just one, and this is extremely simplified) that led to the economic desaster that made the rise to power of Hitler possible.

Germany also paid after the war (starting in 1952, and is still paying AFAIK) billions of dollars' worth of aid, both financial and material, to Israel as reparation for the holocaust.

At the same time, the United States' Marshall plan helped get Germany's economy up and running within a few decades.

-s*

I don't know and I doubt it.

But if we did, I think it would be rather unwise.

And of course, there is the question of whether Iraq will charge the US for the destruction of civilian housing.

What's a life worth?

good question. i know the US is gonna be the biggest helper for iraq (i at least think so).

Isn't the plan that the US is going to use Iraqi oil money to rebiuld etc? Personally I believe any and all damage done during this conflict should be paid for by the american tax payer alone.

You make the mess you pay for the clean up.

Probably not, but it's dollars to donuts that American corporations will get the lion's share of contracts to rebuild Iraq (assuming the Iraqis don't win), and these will probably be funded from Iraqi oil, which will probably be pumped by US corporations (just doing their humanitarian duty to help the stricken company, at only a nominal profit, because, like, "we're not a charity"...).

On this basis, the US can probably afford to restock its arsenal out of the tax dollars that these corporations pay.

Who is going to pay Iraq for all of their country's armed forces? (Not, of course Saddam's, because he is bad. Nasty man.) Ohwait - that'll come from the money that they get from the oil (pumped by the US, sold at US regulated prices, to the US)

You can bet reparation are going to happen.

Since Iraq is arguably the richest country in the world (remember it has huge oil deposits)... be sure it will happen.

It won't drive the country to poverty, but we will be paid back in some sense. Food for Oil, Freedom For Oil... some sort of plan like that.

I don't think it will be 100% either. But some compensation will take place in one way or another.

Reparations are payable by the aggressor - in this case the US (and the UK). Whatever retribution you exact from Iraq. it sure is not reparations.