It seems, however, that the government of Iraq is having some difficulties spending all this revenue. Wonks Anonymous finds this rather odd, given the fact that 2 million Iraqis live abroad as refugees and another 2 million are living in internal exile, that the Iraqi water supply is so bad that there is a constant threat of disease, that the oil production system is still unable to reach pre war goals. . .

Wonks Anonymous could go on but you get the point.

It appears that, despite all of the expertise of O'Hanlon and others at the Brookings Institute, the government of Iraq doesn't have the planning infrastructure or bureaucracy needed to decide on projects and spend the money. Perhaps they are waiting for a cost benefit analysis to determine which area of the nation is at most danger of cholera.

But then they could also just hold local elections and do thousands of other obvious things. Instead they need US troops and US cash, $48 billion this year, in order to run their own country and prevent civil war - this per Mr. O'Hanlon et. al. cited above.

Or maybe they just have inside information on the prospects for a united, peaceful and prosperous Iraq and they consider large bank deposits in New York to be a better bet than trying to make their own country work.

Maybe its time to leave?