Cradle of Civilization
Little more than a year ago, Al Qaeda’s core command was thought to be in a financial crunch. But U.S. officials said cash shipped from Iraq has eased those troubles. “Iraq is a big moneymaker for them,” said a senior U.S. counterterrorism official.
So writes Greg Miller in the LA Times. So the US conquest of Iraq has been a positive boon to:
* al-Qaeda
* Shiite militia leaders
* A handful of US security-industrial-complex companies
* The Islamic Republic of Iran
* Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and his son and heir
* The Victory Coalition We Win They Lose Flopping Aces Pajamas Media
which is, I am sure we can all agree, a list to bring tears of pride to the eyes of Lee Greenwood and Toby Keith. The only folks it hasn’t worked out so well for are the American people, the American Army, and the people of Iraq.
Comment by srv —
May 19, 2007 @ 10:00 pm
Clearly, our leadership hates America.
And hey – didn’t you know that Toby was always against the Iraq War?
Comment by Thoreau —
May 19, 2007 @ 10:05 pm
Would starting a war that benefits the groups on that list constitute treason? Cuz I’m looking for something, anything, that we could use to impeach them.
Comment by ran —
May 20, 2007 @ 2:23 am
Also, it allowed Kommander Kodpiece to strut around playing a war preznint and maybe kept the ‘04 election close enough to steal…
Comment by Thoreau —
May 20, 2007 @ 6:23 am
What really gets me, in looking at the list of beneficiaries from this war, is that so many hawks fancy themselves to be the foreign policy “grown ups”, or deep thinkers on strategy. A lot of keyboard commandos can type at great length about deterrence and “credible threats” and “strategic positions” and whatnot, and insist that they are the experts on warfare and strategy.
And yet they can’t grasp the blindingly obvious fact that their war has been a disaster for us and a boon for our enemies.
Comment by Uncle Kvetch —
May 20, 2007 @ 8:08 am
* A handful of US security-industrial-complex companies
That’s the crux of it, I think. Everything else is just so much background noise.
Uh-oh, does that make me a crazy tinfoil hat person?
Comment by abb1 —
May 20, 2007 @ 9:11 am
Yeah, what Kvetch said. Exxon profited something like $300 billion, all oil companies together probably close to a trillion. Who cares about al-Qaeda and militias.
Comment by diana —
May 20, 2007 @ 11:40 am
I just made the mistake of watching Meet the Press. Newt Gingrich was on. I didn’t know he was still alive. Anyway he compared Iraq to WWII. I realized he was crazy & there was no point in watching him so I switched to channel 2. Frederick Kagan was on. At that point I thought I’d go crazy so I turned the TV off.
Just thought you’d like to know. How’s the weight loss going?
Comment by Thoreau —
May 20, 2007 @ 12:30 pm
The oil company angle on this is tricky, however. They benefit from the fact that instability is driving oil prices through the roof. If Iraq calmed down a bit, risk premiums would drop. If Iraq calmed down further, and Iraqi oil actually started flowing in greater quantities (last I heard it hasn’t been flowing, somebody correct me if I’m wrong) then with additional supply on the market the price of oil would drop even further.
In that case, western oil companies would only benefit if they got the contracts to pump the oil. Is that the case? I honestly don’t know.
Comment by abb1 —
May 21, 2007 @ 3:37 am
Militia and Al Qaeda angles are tricky too, they are all tricky angles. Nevertheless, every time there’s mayhem in the ME, oil companies benefit.