“[O]n a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years…. We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon,” Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said on March 27, 2003, referring to Iraq’s oil fields.
“If you [worry about just] the cost, the money, Iraq is a very different situation from Afghanistan…Iraq has oil,” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Fortune Magazine in the Fall of 2002.
Bush administration hopes for the Iraqi oil industry have also foundered. Initially, there were predictions that Iraq could step up production to 6 million barrels a day in a matter of years.
Now, however, U.S. officials in Iraq concede they may not even be able to meet the goal of pumping 2.8 million barrels of oil a day by the end of this year. Constant insurgent attacks on oil infrastructure have produced losses of up to $1 billion this year, slashing the funds available for reconstruction.