

Iraq's bonds are now rated "nearly on par" with California's - cwan
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/03/21/gambling_on_iraqs_slow_rise_from_ruin/?page=full

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fjabre
Title is link bait. They don't even mention CA until the end. Also kind of a
cheap shot comparison since it's really apples and oranges..

Sure, if it stabilizes Iraq would obviously see a lot of economic growth over
the next decade but that's kind of a no-brainer. The country is in ruins so
any economic growth would be exponential for it..

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jcnnghm
It'll be interesting to see what happens if the oil money flows to the people
in Iraq. Strategically, it would be a very wise move on the part of the US, as
it would assist in shoring up relations with the region. If for their entire
lives they've been told that the United States is the Great Satan, then the US
invades, lets them kill Saddam, and makes everyone that's left rich in the
process, it may reverse some of that.

So far this year, Iraq is safer for US servicemen than where I am today,
Baltimore.
([http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/blog/2010/01/man_...](http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/blog/2010/01/man_pleads_guilty_in_murder_of.html))
The unpopular decisions made by the Bush administration seem to be paying off.

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jacquesm
If you make your sample small enough you will always be able to say that. A
one month period is not long enough to make sweeping statements like that.

To suggest that Iraq is safer for US servicemen than Baltimore you'd have to
look at a period long enough to include your 'anomaly', which by the way was
written in January. And you'd have to qualify the slayings as combat, which
they clearly were not, if you'd include non-combat deaths from Iraq it would
look quite different.

<http://militarytimes.com/valor/> shows that if you take that up to now
(that's only a bit under two months later) that it no longer is true even if
you were to qualify those deaths as combat.

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mnbvgfhjk
Since the start of the war in Iraq, deaths (in action) of US servicemen have
been lower than the preceding decade. Training is actually more dangerous than
war these days!

It's a little bit worse if you include suicides.

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startuprules
No worries; both will be bailed out by Bernanke's printing press. Not to
mention Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Michigan, Florida .....

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jsz0
The Iraqi war price tag is very likely going to exceed $1T so arguably they
already got their payout. Unlike the private sector bailouts, which are being
paid back and in fact turning a profit in some cases, tax payers probably
won't be seeing much in return from the money spent in Iraq.

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mahmud
Why should the American tax payer expect a dime from the Iraqis? They're lucky
if they can let this pass without reparations.

In war, victims of illegal foreign invasions are not required to reimburse the
aggressor.

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sgrove
Well, that makes sense, but it's not always how things play out. Especially if
you're not in a position to order others to play fair:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion#War_reparations>

