The Road to Iraq: Part 2
So just who outside of Iraq might have enough interest in Iraq to start a war with them?
Well, 27.5M people, some 0.4% of the world's population, live there. Not much threat there unless you are an even smaller country.
Of these 27.5M people, 75-80% are Arabs and that's about 7% of all the Arabs in the world. Since no United States of Arabia exists, I see no threat there on that account.
Further, of these 27.5M people, 97% are Muslims. That's about 2% of all Muslims in the world. Of these 60-65% are Shi'ite Muslims and 32-37% are Sunni Muslims. OK, some of these might be, or might become, Islam extremists bent on destroying non-Muslim countries. However, of the 19 terrorists on the airplanes in the 911 attack, 15 were from Saudi Arabia, 2 from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon. None were from Iraq.
Indeed, while Iraq is dominated by a single religion, the government of Iraq has been secular for a very long time. It's also been something less than democratic. So, if you espouse either theocracy or democracy, you might view Iraq as a candidate for conversion.
The land mass of Iraq is 437,072 square miles. That's about twice the size of the State of Idaho and 0.1% of the earth's total land mass. Tiny.
Of that land mass, only 57,810 square miles, or 13%, is arable. Even more tiny.
Iraq has a crude oil reserve of 112,500,000,000 barrels, some 8.5% of all oil reserves worldwide. And, that's 6 times the total oil reserves in the United States. Now that's something of interest to a wide range of folks.
Further, Iraq and other countries in the surrounding region have 56% of the worldwide oil reserves. These are lead by Saudi Arabia (20%), Iran (10%), Kuwait (8%) and United Arab Emirates (7%). None of these, it should be noted, have democratic governments.
Well, 27.5M people, some 0.4% of the world's population, live there. Not much threat there unless you are an even smaller country.
Of these 27.5M people, 75-80% are Arabs and that's about 7% of all the Arabs in the world. Since no United States of Arabia exists, I see no threat there on that account.
Further, of these 27.5M people, 97% are Muslims. That's about 2% of all Muslims in the world. Of these 60-65% are Shi'ite Muslims and 32-37% are Sunni Muslims. OK, some of these might be, or might become, Islam extremists bent on destroying non-Muslim countries. However, of the 19 terrorists on the airplanes in the 911 attack, 15 were from Saudi Arabia, 2 from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon. None were from Iraq.
Indeed, while Iraq is dominated by a single religion, the government of Iraq has been secular for a very long time. It's also been something less than democratic. So, if you espouse either theocracy or democracy, you might view Iraq as a candidate for conversion.
The land mass of Iraq is 437,072 square miles. That's about twice the size of the State of Idaho and 0.1% of the earth's total land mass. Tiny.
Of that land mass, only 57,810 square miles, or 13%, is arable. Even more tiny.
Iraq has a crude oil reserve of 112,500,000,000 barrels, some 8.5% of all oil reserves worldwide. And, that's 6 times the total oil reserves in the United States. Now that's something of interest to a wide range of folks.
Further, Iraq and other countries in the surrounding region have 56% of the worldwide oil reserves. These are lead by Saudi Arabia (20%), Iran (10%), Kuwait (8%) and United Arab Emirates (7%). None of these, it should be noted, have democratic governments.
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