American soldiers are distributing cash in an attempt to buy the goodwill of the Iraqi people and to counter offers of money to unemployed Iraqis willing to attack Americans. U.S. patrol leaders carry envelopes of cash given to them by brigade commanders, who get as much as $50,000 to $100,000 a month to distribute locally.
There are virtually no restrictions on how the cash is given away and officers acknowledge they consider the money another weapon. The recipients are the legions of unemployed Iraqi men, many of them former soldiers, policemen and low-level members of the Baath Party of the ousted president, Saddam Hussein who were put out of work when Proconsul Paul Bremer ordered a de-Baathification of Iraq. U.S. Soldiers say those unemployed men are willing to carry out attacks on the Americans for pay, sometimes as little at $200 for a roadside attack with a bonus for Americans killed.
So let's see, a little bit of economic hope and terrorism evaporates? I wonder what the unemployment rate is in U.S. inner cities.
Washington Post: U.S. Using Cash as a Defensive Weapon
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