Oil, a savior to an economic catastrophe
...er rescheduled foreign debt payments. France became a major military supplier to Iraq after 1971; France wanted a politico military bridge between Paris and Baghdad. In total by 1987 Iraqi debts to France were estimated at more than US $3 billion. The Soviet Union was Iraq’s most important supplier, having provided more than US $8 billion worth of weapons since 1980. In early 1988 Iraq owed the Soviet Union between US $8 billion and US $10 billion in military debts alone. Their total external debt in 2001 was $62.2 billion. It is plain to see these debts are extremely alarming; the one thing I fail to see is how another war could help the current situation. Iraq is just getting back on its feet from the eight-year war with Iran, which put them in a debt of US $70 billion, and which has taken around fifteen years for them to recover from. A war with the US, the largest nation, would devastate this country and could do so much damage to their land and machinery that they may never recover. The population would also decrease dramatically through deaths of this war. Oil is found in the North, northeast, and in the south. The oil industry of Iraq was nationalized in 1972. With proven reserves of 112-bil bbl and probable reserves of 214-bil bbl, Iraq has the second largest crude reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia. The infrastructure of the country's oil industry is however in a lamentable state after suffering badly in the 1991 Gulf War. But Iraq has been unable to expand its exploration program in the past 20 years, first because of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and later because of UN sanctions in place since 1990 after its invasion of Kuwait. I believe Iraq can be re-built and eventually have the majority of their debts paid and become an independent country and not have to borrow off other countries. Yet it has no choice but to keep oil exports going under the UN's humanitarian oil-for-food program, which allows Baghdad to sell oil under UN supervision to buy food and medicines. Current exports are running at around 2.2-mil b/d, according to Iraqi officials, since Iraq resumed oil sales after a one-month stoppage to punish the...