Actually the Iraqi economy is doing quite well. Just read an article about it from Newsweek.

Sorry no HTML skills: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16241340/site/newsweek/

Everything else in that nation is another matter.

rppp01a: The second the US stops funding the mess over there, it'll collapse.

Did you happen to read the next sentence?
National oil revenues and foreign grants look set to total $41 billion this year, according to the IMF

Unless oil becomes worthless in the next few years I'd say they will continue to do alright.

/Reading is fundamental

Bill_Wick's_Friend: How much of that $41 billion is oil and how much is from dumptrucks full of cash that the US backs into Baghdad

Well the oilfields in northern Iraq are pumping out more oil now than they ever did under Saddam and the oilfields in southern Iraq are finally gaining some semblance of security so I'd guess a good chunk is from the oil. Also, a lot of other nations have given money to the Iraqi government, possibly via dump trucks filled with Euros and Yuans, in order to try and gain favor once the Iraqi oil market comes back to full strength. Remember the war did have a lot to do with the fact Iraq was sitting on the 4th largest supply of oil in the world. The big question is who will profit the most from it.

Bill_Wick's_Friend: I cannot find a single article that says that oil output is anywhere close to where it was before the 2003 invasion.

I said output from the North is above pre-war levels. This is pretty easy to understand, the northern, Kurdish controlled areas have done much better than other areas in the country since the invasion. Probably due to the fact that they were pretty much an independent country once the no-fly zones went into effect. On the other hand the south, where the majority of the oil is, is only now starting regular production due to the fact that it has faced more frequent attacks on its infrastructure.

I did not intend to imply overall production was higher now, just production in the north. Sorry if I worded it in a confusing manner, I never have been a very good writer.

rppp01a: I refer back to the 30 to 50 percent unemployment. That's not a good thing to have- that plus civil unrest means something's going to give when people are hungry.

Agreed on that end. Massive unemployment is not good, but IF and I do mean if, the economy can ride out the unrest those numbers would drop like a rock. And very true that unrest + poverty = nothing left to lose = chaos. But then again I've always thought, sectarian differences aside, that Iraq would make a great test bed for true communism. Vast amounts of highly precious resources that at the current time are not specifically owned by anyone other than the Iraqi people. But then the reality of what communism inevitably turns into pops back in my head.

/Back to work I go