BILL MOYERS:Welcome to the Journal.In Afghanistan, 500 American military have now died. And in Iraq, the number of American troops killed rose this week to 4,134.

That alone is cause for grief. Who remembers any longer why they're dying, or what the war is all about? Ask your neighbors: what are we still doing in Iraq? See what they say.

But there was some other news about Iraq this week that also has people shaking their heads in disbelief. The White House projects next year's federal budget deficit will be a record $482 billion, and that's not counting the projected $25 billion bailout of the mortgage banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or the total costs of fighting in the Middle East.

Try to get your mind around those numbers and then hear this: Our own government's independent accountants issued a report concluding that, by year's end, the Iraqi government may have a budget surplus as high as $79 billion.

That's because of the high price of oil is filling Iraq's coffers. That's "war torn" Iraq, a surplus of $79 billion after we've poured $100 billion a year into that country and all those American lives.

$79 billion and they're not spending it on rebuilding, on getting their electrical systems back on the grid, constructing schools and hospitals and housing, or making sure everyone has food and clean water.

Between 2005 and 2007, the GAO report says, only 10% of the Iraqi budget went toward reconstruction of their own country. Once again, you and I, American taxpayers, are picking up the slack — $48 billion dollars allocated for reconstruction costs since the shock and awe of Baghdad more than five years ago.

By the way, that includes $33 million for a new hotel, office complex and shopping mall at the Baghdad airport.

Remember what former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told Congress back in 2003, before the war.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ: We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.

BILL MOYERS:Remember, too, what Colin Powell told President Bush before we invaded Iraq: you break it, you buy it. Julius Caesar came, saw and conquered. George W. Bush broke and bought, and we just keep paying, in money and blood, while billions of oil profits pile up in Iraq as "surplus."