Oils Well That Ends Well

It was a great relief to read in today’s NYT about the sudden revival of the Iraqi oil industry. Thanks to the $1 billion we have invested in infrastructure and another $1 billion on gasoline imports, Iraq is now exporting almost as much crude oil as it was before the war.

With another $1 billion of American investment slated for this coming year (a good chunk of it probably going right in the pockets of good old American contractors), Iraq is now projecting $14 billion in oil exports, compared to about $5 billion last year.

What’s great about politics is that it creates scenarios that you would never find in any other profession.

How often, for example, could you walk into a hospital and find a patient who is on the critical list suddenly walking around with a clean bill of health? On top of that, could you also imagine that hospital — after initially agreeing to treat this patient for free — discovering he had a huge inheritance, and deciding to foot the bill for him anyway?