After almost nine years, more than $1tn and 4,487 American and 179 British lives lost, the US is withdrawing from Iraq, leaving the country’s economic spoils to nations that neither supported nor participated in the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Turkey, Iran, China, South Korea, Italy and Arab states have already invested billions in Iraq, far outpacing the US and UK in every non-oil sector, from transport and telecoms to housing and construction.
US and British groups won early, lucrative contracts in oil and gas, including ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell’s bid to develop Iraq’s huge West Qurna oilfield. Beyond energy, however, investment is modest and Iraqi officials have expressed disappointment in private-sector interest from the two countries that ended a dictatorship and cracked open its free market.