What did we win in Iraq? At vast cost in blood and money we’ve turned a weak secular state into a potentially strong Islamic ally of Iran. Women and religious minorities have paid a high price for our victory. Despite 5 years of pressure on the Iraq government, they refused to pass the exploitation-by-foreign-corporation-friendly oil law.
Now we have the results of the Iraq oil auctions. We didn’t even get lush oil contracts for American companies.
- “US groups miss out as Shell, Lukoil and CNPC snap up Iraqi oil deals“, Financial Times, 14 December 2009
We might run an Empire, but have not learned to do so profitably. Let’s run a preliminary score for the Iraq War. The winners are…
- The Arab Shiites of Iraq
- The Kurds, not just of Iraq but in the entire around.
- Iran (or rather its political regime)
- China, forging close relationships with oil exporters Iraq and Iran
The losers:
- Women in Iraq.
- religious minorities in Iraq (e.g. Christians)
- Sunni Arabs
- America
