4. Huge reserves lying in the ground. Iraq's Oil exports havent even reached pre-war levels.
p.s. The U.S. has directly spent over $200 billion on the war in addition the reduction in Iraq's Oil exports have increased world price which itself would represent another $100 bilion for the U.S. economy. Also the 200b figure doesnt include the cost wear and tear on equipment fully and the U.S. is reducing capital expenditure on acquisitions to pay for the war. All this happening against a backdrop of strong growth by China, Russia, Iran and so forth.
Thank you. I'm glad that somebody finally pointed that out.
Guys, I hate to rain on your parade but the United States didn't invade Iraq to grab oil. The invasion of Iraq was a reaction to 9/11, a warning to other "rogue" states/state-sponsors of terrorism like Libya, Iran, North Korea etc.
Basically the whole point was to pick a country such as those listed above, sweep into it like a scythe, oust the existing government, quickly put a new (pro-U.S. obviously) government in place and LEAVE. Of all the countries that were on the target list, it was assumed that Iraq would fit the bill perfectly. They were militarily weak, smaller than others in population and land area, and
had huge oil reserves that could be used to rebuild the country after the U.S. invasion. The oil was never meant for the U.S. except through normal trade, but for the benefit of Iraq. In other words, the U.S. didn't want to have to finance the reconstruction itself.
That is what the message the Bush Administration wanted to portray to anti-American countries: "Don't even THINK about pulling a 9/11 style attack or ANY other kind of attack on the United States or we will BURY you just like we did with Iraq."
Of course, in their arrogance, people like Bush and Rumsfeld just assumed it would be a relatively easy thing to take on Iraq after the near-instant success in Afghanistan. (though as somebody pointed out, the Taliban hasn't quite quit the fight)
Obviously that's not what happened.
They can afford to take even more losses because they have a self-sustainable and strong economy and an abundance of man-power.
It does not matters that how many dollars are being spent in this war because they can afford it.
And most of the expenses are due to expensive equipment in use. And they are not going to stay in Iraq forever.
Things move on with passage of time!
Don't believe it
LeGenD. The U.S. does have a strong economy, unquestionably. But it's not limitless. Neither is the patience of it's taxpayers, nor the patience of the families of it's soldiers.
And the expenses involved are hardly due 'mostly to expensive equipment use'. That's part of it, no doubt about it. But a huge part is trying to repair the damage and neglect to the Iraqi infrastruction. It doesn't help that there is an ongoing insurgency either.
