Are We Better Off Without Saddam?
by Joe?Pulcinella
Not if you run the numbers as Youssef M. Ibrahim at USAToday did.
Iraq used to produce close to 3.5 million barrels of oil per day under the rule of Saddam Hussein. It exported about 2.5 million barrels daily within the now-defunct, United Nations-guided oil-for-food program. It produced another half a million barrels for its own internal consumption to feed its now-looted and destroyed refineries. And it managed to "smuggle" about 300,000-500,000 barrels a day to Iran, Jordan, Syria and Turkey, with the money going into Saddam's treasury.
The reason oil prices have been hovering around $50 a barrel now is that most of these Iraqi exports disappeared just as oil consumption began to skyrocket around the world.
This article is not long but should be read and kept as an example of true global economics at work. Economic reality is as absolute as the sun rising in the east and no president or military can change that.
