Behold the New Iraq, exporting oil AND democracy, and set to become one of the richest countries in the world — at five times current levels they would be looking at about $25B per month in windfall wealth, in a country of ~25 million. (Worth noting: no democracy has ever failed at that level of wealth.) And instead of going for SCUDs, tanks, and WMD programs to attack Iraq’s neighbors or tacky palaces to aggrandize Saddam, the money might actually be spent usefully, to benefit the Iraqi people.
Status of neocons: vindicated.
Comments
4 responses to “Oil’s Well That Ends Well”
Yep, this is exactly what Paul Wolfowitz was talking about when he said that Iraq was sitting on an ocean of oil. Their long-term prospects are good, if they can maintain any sort of political sanity and stability.
Of course the left took him to be saying that we were going to war to take that oil. I still see some of those “No blood for oil” bumper stickers around Ann Arbor. One wonders what would those people take as disconfirmation. How about $5 per gallon gas?
Good point, Dave, and good point DJ.
“spent usefully, to benefit the Iraqi people.”
Not humanly possible. It will be used to buy votes. Unfortunately, using natural resource wealth to create a Nanny State is no less a recipe for eventual disaster than using taxes.
Hey, they might build some roads too.
I’m an optimist.