Back in the early days of this millennium, with Iraq about as much of a pariah on the international scene as it tended to be, the UN implemented an "oil-for-food" program under which Iraq was able to sell a limited amount of oil in exchange for food aid. Of course, as is often the case with international aid, the folks in charge (i.e. Saddam Hussein and friends) ended up with more of the aid than the folks on the bottom. Unsurprisingly, there was quite a scandal over all this, which led to many conservatives rightly calling for an investigation. An investigation or two duly occurred, and revealed (among other things) that the Hussein regime had imposed special "taxes" on the oil that was sold... which meant that from 2000-2002, cold, hard cash was going from American oil companies to Saddam Hussein and company, who cheerily spent it on weapons and influence, instead of food. In one case, the investigation found out that when the practice started