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June 25, 2008 Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: A new Defense Department report on the Iraqi economy predicts significant growth will continue and says inflation has been cut by nearly two-thirds in two years. Iraq's economic potential is in stark contrast to that of Afghanistan. For the reasons behind both assessments, here's national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JENNIFER GRIFFIN: Critics of the Iraq invasion describe Afghanistan as the good war, meaning it was justified and Iraq as the bad war. They argue as soon as the U.S. draws down in Iraq and can commit more troops to securing Afghanistan, progress will be made in the war against al-Qaeda. But Iraq, given its vast oil wealth, has a far greater chance of achieving success and standing on its own as an independent economy than Afghanistan does.
SAM BRANNEN, CTR STRATEGIC & INTL STUDIES: Iraq will emerge as the richest oil state in the world, with the largest conventional reserves, those reserves that are easiest to get at. So Iraq really has a bright economic future ahead of it.
GRIFFIN: According to the Pentagon's most recent report to Congress measuring stability and security in Iraq, Iraq had more than $60 billion in gross domestic product last year, over half from its oil revenues. Its economy grew by four percent last year and is expected to grow by seven percent in 2008. Inflation in Iraq is now just 12 percent, down from 32 percent in 2006. Compare that to Afghanistan as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs did during a meeting with his staff.
ADM. MIKE MULLEN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF CHMN: Afghanistan's economy, they are -- they are at the bottom of the ladder with respect to economies in the world. Their revenues this year are somewhere around $700 million total, and that just indicates that we've got a long way to go there with respect to developing an economy.
GRIFFIN: In his new book "Descent Into Chaos," Pakistani journalist and Afghan expert, Ahmed Rashid, shows how much Afghanistan's poppy cultivation, the raw material for heroin, has increased in recent years. Opium production rose to more than 6,000 tons in 2006 and more than 8,000 tons a year later. In 2007, Afghanistan produced 93 percent of the world's heroin.
Afghanistan's GDP in 2006 was $6.7 billion. Opium made up nearly half of it. According to Rashid, "There was no doubt that the Taliban's major offensive in the summer of 2006 was due largely to the enormous income it now accrued from opium."
BRANNEN: Afghanistan is really in many ways coming from the stone ages. From the Taliban, there are generations of Afghans literally who have had no formal education whatsoever.
GRIFFIN: Oil production could be one of the keys to U.S. troops leaving Iraq. In May, Iraq produced 2.5 million barrels of oil per day but needs billions of dollars in investment to improve output. Iraq's hydrocarbon law remains stalled in parliament as Kurds and Shias (ph) continue fighting over revenue sharing. But at least the Iraqis have a resource other than poppy to argue about.
At the Pentagon, Jennifer Griffin, FOX News. (END VIDEOTAPE)
June 25, 2008 Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: A new Defense Department report on the Iraqi economy predicts significant growth will continue and says inflation has been cut by nearly two-thirds in two years. Iraq's economic potential is in stark contrast to that of Afghanistan. For the reasons behind both assessments, here's national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JENNIFER GRIFFIN: Critics of the Iraq invasion describe Afghanistan as the good war, meaning it was justified and Iraq as the bad war. They argue as soon as the U.S. draws down in Iraq and can commit more troops to securing Afghanistan, progress will be made in the war against al-Qaeda. But Iraq, given its vast oil wealth, has a far greater chance of achieving success and standing on its own as an independent economy than Afghanistan does.
SAM BRANNEN, CTR STRATEGIC & INTL STUDIES: Iraq will emerge as the richest oil state in the world, with the largest conventional reserves, those reserves that are easiest to get at. So Iraq really has a bright economic future ahead of it.
GRIFFIN: According to the Pentagon's most recent report to Congress measuring stability and security in Iraq, Iraq had more than $60 billion in gross domestic product last year, over half from its oil revenues. Its economy grew by four percent last year and is expected to grow by seven percent in 2008. Inflation in Iraq is now just 12 percent, down from 32 percent in 2006. Compare that to Afghanistan as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs did during a meeting with his staff.
ADM. MIKE MULLEN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF CHMN: Afghanistan's economy, they are -- they are at the bottom of the ladder with respect to economies in the world. Their revenues this year are somewhere around $700 million total, and that just indicates that we've got a long way to go there with respect to developing an economy.
GRIFFIN: In his new book "Descent Into Chaos," Pakistani journalist and Afghan expert, Ahmed Rashid, shows how much Afghanistan's poppy cultivation, the raw material for heroin, has increased in recent years. Opium production rose to more than 6,000 tons in 2006 and more than 8,000 tons a year later. In 2007, Afghanistan produced 93 percent of the world's heroin.
Afghanistan's GDP in 2006 was $6.7 billion. Opium made up nearly half of it. According to Rashid, "There was no doubt that the Taliban's major offensive in the summer of 2006 was due largely to the enormous income it now accrued from opium."
BRANNEN: Afghanistan is really in many ways coming from the stone ages. From the Taliban, there are generations of Afghans literally who have had no formal education whatsoever.
GRIFFIN: Oil production could be one of the keys to U.S. troops leaving Iraq. In May, Iraq produced 2.5 million barrels of oil per day but needs billions of dollars in investment to improve output. Iraq's hydrocarbon law remains stalled in parliament as Kurds and Shias (ph) continue fighting over revenue sharing. But at least the Iraqis have a resource other than poppy to argue about.
At the Pentagon, Jennifer Griffin, FOX News. (END VIDEOTAPE)