Are the fruits of Iraq being picked by us? Many people say that we are now the largest oil importer from Iraq, and although the US waged a war in Iraq, it did not occupy Iraq's oil fields, and in the end, it actually ended up doing us a favor.
This statement seems plausible, but it is actually reversing cause and effect.
Many people don't know that during Saddam's era, Iraq was ruled by a minority of Sunni Muslims over the majority of Shia Muslims. Shia Muslims account for about 65% of Iraq's total population, while Sunnis make up less than 25%.
Americans were not doing good deeds out of kindness, but rather they messed up themselves. After toppling Saddam's government, they implemented a one-person-one-vote election system in Iraq. Since the Shia Muslims are the majority, this naturally led to a result: the Iraqi government became a de facto Shia government.
The main country of the Shia Muslims is Iran, so later, the Iraqi government had a relatively close relationship with Iran. However, the relationship between the Iraqi government and the United States did not become particularly close after the fall of Saddam. On the contrary, American military bases were often attacked by local armed forces.
The United States also wasn't unwilling to occupy Iraq's oil fields, but the Shia government in Iraq didn't cooperate, often ignoring the United States. This gave us an opportunity to enter the Iraqi oil market because we do business relatively fairly, build infrastructure, and offer fair prices, which are recognized by Iraq.
In essence, this is neither the US doing us a favor nor us picking the fruits; it's the US messing up in Iraq, and we are cleaning up the mess.
Original text: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1836402758666249/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author.