I had assumed that Mr. Trump’s assertion on the campaign trail that the United States should have taken and kept Iraq’s oil was nothing but electioneering. The fact that he has repeated it as president suggests that he may actually believe it’s a good idea.

Author

Kenneth M. Pollack

Senior Fellow – Foreign Policy, Center for Middle East Policy

Just for the sake of argument, let’s set aside the fact that doing so would be illegal, immoral, and strategically disastrous. There’s actually a simpler reason to forget this idea: it would be a terrible financial move.

Until science fiction movies become reality, the United States has no ability to somehow “take” all of Iraq’s oil (143 billion barrels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency) and move it to the United States in one fell swoop. We can’t suck it up and fly it back to New Jersey. So in reality, “taking” Iraqi oil means occupying Iraq, pumping its oil the way that the Iraqis have, selling it on the international market, and keeping the revenues for ourselves.

MORE:   https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2017/01/25/want-to-take-the-oil-crunch-the-numbers-first/?utm_campaign=Foreign+Policy&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=41486563