Iraq: October 4, 2003

Archives

Given the decrepit state of Iraq's oil facilities, it's unlikely that more than $15-20 billion a worth a year can be extracted over the next few years. It is currently costing about $20 billion a year to rebuild Iraq, and that's with a major effort to keep the corruption and theft in check. Without those controls, the Iraqis would need $30 billion or more to get the same amount of reconstruction. The United States is going to have to make up the shortfall to keep reconstruction going. Meanwhile, it's costing about a billion dollars a week to pay for the American military effort against the Baath Party and it's allies (al Qaeda, Arab nationalists and Islamic radicals) inside Iraq. 

X

ad

Help keep us a float!

Your support helps us keep our ship a float. We appreciate anyway you chose to help out. Visit us daily, subscribe, donate, and tell your friends.

You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  2. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
  3. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on X.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close