And you think all the new tax's are 'green' or to save the middle class's from wine consumption.

Andy, France,

How much money is there? Where does it all come from? Surely this government can't keep finding money from what seems a bottemless pit to finance the crazy wars in Iraq and Afganistan. All this money could surely be put to a better and more meaningful use at home.
It would be very educational to be told the answer to all these questions. Or is the man in the street expected to know all about where all the money comes from?

T. Elcock, Cambridge,

Thank goodness we will at least be getting free oil by way of compensation from Iraq. How wise of our leaders to anticipate our future need for fuel and to topple the terrible dictatorship of Saddam Hussain and bring peace to this region. It is hard to put a price on freedom but around six billion pounds worth of oil sounds about right.
Will the chancellor use the savings on the cost of oil imports to rescue our pensioners from fuel poverty this winter or will he use the money to recover our economic and social structure?
Or will the arms industry profit in some way so that a few ex ministers can have cushy jobs and a large retirement pot. The rest of us will of course fund the war out of the taxes we pay. With this government in power we really should learn more about tax avoidance. Of course most of us don't have enough money left after taxes to employ a good tax accountants.

Tony Woods, London, UK

Wow. And we only 'half went to war'. We did the 'war light' thing. You know, with half equipped soldiers, and sub-standard vehicles, and just the one helicopter to around. Imagine how much it would have cost if we'd gone all the way and equipped our Army.

What did the MOD expect ? War on the cheap.

Richard, Norwich, UK.

Maybe i will not be able to put this across as elequant as a times reporter as i am a serving Royal Marine, however you are correct this is a burden to the country but not as big a burden as the non working non tax paying residents in the UK.
Within the services you have eighteen year old lads asked by the goverment to fight, kill and maybe lose their life for about £16,000 a year. You can earn that in benefits in this country and unlike the troops not have to pay tax.
This country needs something in place to ensure that all people who get benefits give something back to the country by way of "community based work" This will ease the burden this country is suffering. This great country of ours must stop ttreating our troops as second class citizens.

Barry Buddon, Lympstone, England

I am very interested in knowing what deal the UK has with the USA regarding oil revenues. Iraq has several pipelines pushing out crude daily. How much of this goes directly to the US reserves?
How much goes to the UK as an ally?
For how long will the oil "export" continue?
By knowing some of these answers we will find out why Iraq was invaded in the first place.

jaime gamell riera, Madrid, Spain

Well, as they say in America, "you can't put a price on freedom." The rewards for spending billions and billions of tax-payers money is that Afghan kids can now go to madrassa's where they are taught to hate the West. And if we have to bankcrupt our own country so we can support the freedom of middle-eastern countries to hate us, it will be worth it. It makes me feel all warm inside knowing our country sucks and our school system sucks, but as long as we're spreading the good word of freedom throughout the world, who can be upset with that? May the Angels of Freedom (or are they eagles?) sore from the heavens and bless the world with our loving generosity and gift of peace. And may those countries thank us some other time, when they're figured out that we are their saviours and they owe us everything.

Andrew Nyazai, Godalming, UK