Asking important questions.

Ha'aretz - Article Iraq is not Afghanistan, which can offer only dust, opium and snow. Whoever rules Iraq, or pulls the strings of its new rulers, will also run its oil production and marketing, its trade relations with Turkey, Iran and the Gulf states, and be able to determine to a large extent what the Arab League will look like, if it looks like anything at all after this war. He will be able to hand out benefits to Arab states and East Asian states who will want to resume sending their workers to Iraq.

The "new" Iraq will have too much money and influence to enable its rulers to stick to the subline idea of "Iraqi oil for the Iraqis."

The battle of Baghdad is not over yet, but already one can smell the fresh ink on the applications for reconstructive work. The only question left is how much room will remain for the "democratization" of Iraq or for peace in the Middle East, in the scramble after the loot.