Iraq

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate September 2001

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Iraq has gone through many conflicts and trial throughout the years such as economics of oil, the Persian Gulf War (conflict between the U.N and also with the United States). The conflicts they have beens through has cost them a lot in the government and also in economics, etc. Iraq had made some poor decisions under the leadership of Saddam Hussein and is paying the consequences for his decision.

        Iraq's economy has suffered and continues to suffer because of the wars and the poor decisions that have made in the past. Many people in Iraq are suffering because of the lack of food. Before the Iran-Iraq War and the Persian Gulf War, Iraq had bold plans for economic development. These plans for the development of the economy relied on oil sales. The Oil Industry is the principal source of Iraq's wealth. Since oil is the principal of their wealth it is a big factor for their plan to develop their economy and if they lose it, then their economy will suffer like it is right now.

Oil provides nearly all the nation's foreign income. The Oil Industry began in 1927. In Iraq there are three main regions where oil fields lie. The first region is near Kirkuk. The second is northwest of Mosul and the third is Southwest of Basra (Lerner p. 51). These regions got bombed heavily during the Iran-Iraq conflict, but they got repaired (Lerner p. 52). Crude oil made up more than 90% of Iraq's exports before the Persian Gulf War and also oil exports had reached up to about three million barrels per day (Lerner p. 56). The wars with neighboring Iran kept Iraq from earning a large income from oil. So because of the conflicts Iraq had with other country the oil industry has gone down and it's economy is recovering slowly ( Lerner p. 51). Iraq is far away from fulfilling their plan of a better economy.