Top 10 winners from the war on Iraq

Foreign Policy has its new issue up online (limited for those w/o subscriptions) of the 10 winners of the US occupation of Iraq.  The list includes states, people, NGOs, and other 'entities.'  The list goes as follows with links if the essay is open to the public:

1.  Iran

2-10 and the booby prize under the crease....

2.  Moqtada al-Sadr  (who office has been -- claimed to have been -- attacked by US and Iraqi forces)

3.  al Qaeda   (Duhhh)

4.  "mad man" Samuel Huntington

5.  China

6.  Arab Dictators   (Duhh,  goes hand in hand with #7)

7.  The price of oil

8.  The UN

9.  Old Europe  (an early Rumsfeld blunder)

10.  Israel

So out of that we get 2:  Israel, and we helped the Arab dictators which are our closest allies in the region.  This war should be the the new definition of a foreign policy disaster.

FP doesn't say it so bluntly but it points out that the ultimate price to one of the -- in my honest opinion -- biggest loser -- behind only the Iraqi people perhaps -- is the US tax payer.  

The White House estimated that the Iraq war would cost $50 billion. Today, it’s closing in on 10 times that amount. And those are just the costs we know about.

On a somewhat related note, the BBC is anticipating the UKs timetable for withdrawal from Iraq as early as Wed (21 February 2007).

•  be sure to check the next Websters dictionary!

  and show me some love because I'm supposed to be writing a report.

  by hfiend on Tue Feb 20, 2007 at 03:28:11 PM PDT

•  You forgot Halliburton, KBR, Contractors. n/t

  by saguaro on Tue Feb 20, 2007 at 03:56:55 PM PDT

  •  I sure did...

    oops

    by hfiend on Tue Feb 20, 2007 at 04:04:50 PM PDT

  •  And Dick Cheney

    No doubt skimming off of Haliburton's extra earnings.

    by Navy Vet Terp on Tue Feb 20, 2007 at 04:10:50 PM PDT

    •  take Israel off the list

      but you could add hezbollah and KBR

      by nathguy on Tue Feb 20, 2007 at 06:10:39 PM PDT

  •  no kidding

    after big oil, they've been the biggest winners of all!

    by dougymi on Tue Feb 20, 2007 at 05:19:00 PM PDT

•  Don't agree with Arab Dictators and Israel

  Invading and occupying an Arab and Moslem country, and killing lots of Arabs and Moslems in the meantime, all for pack of lies and a pile of garbage, has been been a boon to Al Queda and other terrorists organizations.  We have exponentially increased anger and hate in the Arab and Moslem worlds and have effectively recruited terrorists who now will invariably endanger both Israel and the Arab dictators.  Of the latter, Mubarik in Egypt may be the most imperiled at the moment by radical Islam.  Our invasion and occupation of Iraq, in my judgment, contributed to Hamas's partial takeover of the Palestine authority.

  by Navy Vet Terp on Tue Feb 20, 2007 at 04:16:36 PM PDT

  •  more than musharraf? nahh

    but I accept the overall point on dictators.  But they are getting a lot of money including a fully funded Intel entity at their command, no?  

    Hamas won because Fatah was seen as corrupt more than blowback from Iraq, imo.

    by hfiend on Tue Feb 20, 2007 at 06:27:34 PM PDT

•  Israel?

  Instability in the Middle East is never good for Israel in the long run, especially when the hostilities are toward the West or occupying forces.

  by rumky on Wed Feb 21, 2007 at 12:46:36 AM PDT