$800M gone in Iraq

Is not a number for how much US spent, which is much larger, but basically been stolen. That's a huge amout.

Iraq's former finance minister alleged in a U.S. television report that up to $800 million meant to equip the Iraqi army had been stolen from the government by former officials through fraudulent arms deals.

The former minister, Ali Allawi, told CBS' "60 Minutes" that $1.2 billion had been allocated from the Iraqi treasury to the defense ministry to buy new weapons. About $400 million was spent on outdated equipment, while the rest of the money was simply stolen, he said in the interview, which aired Sunday.

If they decided to split a very small portion of that money into scientific research, maybe I don't need to TA now. I first saw the news on AMERICAblog but didn't go deep into it since I was in a rush to attend the curriculum meeting.