PLN - IRAQ TO REBUILD IRAQ! - PRIME TOP STORY!!

Finally! After five long years of a complete free ride, Congress is taking action to put the responsibility for Iraq's future in the cash-lined hands of gratefully liberated Iraqis.

"We're not saying that they should rebuild EVERYTHING without our financial and material help," says U.S. State Department Representative Dale Burnham. "We'll let them rebuild the hospitals, roads, power lines, neighborhoods, schools, and infrastructure. We'll take care of the rest."

Using Iraq's surging oil income as proof Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska said of the American people, "they are looking at why Baghdad can't pay more of these costs. The answer is they can."

Their tax dollars at work.

In a compassionate act of bipartisanship Republican and Democratic senators have banded together to draft bills that will restrict all future reconstruction grants to loans instead of welfare-like giveaways.

The bills will include legislation that will force Baghdad to:

- Pay for the fuel used by U.S. Troops.

- Cover the cost of training friendly Sunni Militias.

- Spend more of it's surplus oil revenue to rebuild before tapping into precious U.S. cash resources.

- Buy back looted museum artifacts with surplus oil revenue.

- Pay a percentage of their income based on the amount of Iraq liberated.

Representative Lindsey Gramm of Michigan kept the ball rolling with a suggestion that any anticipated Iraqi budget surplus could be used to help Afghanistan, while Joe Lieberman slam dunked the issue hard by demanding that Iraq start paying some U.S. combat costs.

The Bush administration actually agreed with Congress stating that, "We expect Iraq to shoulder the full burden of these costs."

Luckily the U.S. can supervise all the reconstruction efforts from it's new $736 million dollar fortified embassy in Baghdad.

With Iraq taking on it's own burdens the question remains, "How much more accomplished is this mission going to get?"

That's more like it!