Why Iraq oil money hasn’t fueled rebuilding

First, the good news: With oil prices at record highs, Iraq is on track to bring in $20 billion or more in oil revenue this year.

That may sound like a lot of petrodollars, especially for a war-torn country with tremendous needs in infrastructure repair and services delivery.

But the bad news is that very little, if any, of that money will actually be used in the country’s stalled reconstruction – despite past lofty predictions that oil-rich Iraq would be financially self-sufficient by now.