It's not just Iraq - it's the Atlantic partnership which is at stake.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Iraq is a manufactured conflict for the sake of geopolitical dominance in the area.
The Iraqis have become invested in their nationhood.
I don't think countries engage with each other looking at immediate gains. It's building a partnership.
The U.S. and Iraq will work together next year to shift Iraqi resources from unproductive subsidies to productive uses that enable Iraqis to earn livelihoods.
Iraq... has also had contacts with al-Qaida. Their ties may be limited by divergent ideologies, but the two sides' mutual antipathy toward the United States and the Saudi royal family suggests that tactical cooperation between them is possible.
They have involved co-operation between the Iraqi intelligence and al-Qaeda operatives on training and combined operations regarding bomb making and chemical and biological weapons.
And then there's Israel - a lot of people support Israel, and it's important to Israel to take out Iraq. So it's all mixed together. It's a combination of motives.
Iraq has, in effect, one export of any consequence. That's oil.
But the key thing is that Iraq, while it's got very large oil reserves, has marginalized itself as an oil exporter and these days its exports are only about one tenth that of neighboring Saudi Arabia.
The U.N. is much more than the case of Iraq.