Don Nickles: “This existing Saddam Hussein-incurred debt will suffocate Iraq and prevent Iraq from really rejoining the world economy…”

“This existing Saddam Hussein-incurred debt will suffocate Iraq and prevent Iraq from really rejoining the world economy, from making significant progress. These are countries, including the United States--Canada, Germany, France, Russia, and others that have something at stake--sure. But they have never been paid a dime on this debt and, frankly, they will not be. I hope they all saddle up and say: We want to have an investment in Iraq's future. By doing so, we forgive this debt and we will enable Iraq to start to grow and make some progress. This idea we are going to be debating shortly, that maybe the $20 billion or a portion of the $20 billion should be a loan, that is if this existing debt, is not written off, there is no chance whatsoever any additional debt would ever be able to be repaid. We can act as if it can be, we can pretend it will be, but it will not be. So this debt needs to be written off. We made a mistake at the conclusion of World War I. The victors didn't write off the debt of the Germans. At the end of World War II, we did write off the debt of the Germans and the Japanese. That was significant. It was controversial but it was the right thing to do, and this is the right thing, not only for the Western countries, the G8 countries, but also for the Gulf States--for Kuwait, for Saudi Arabia.”