Problem is, you cant just expect the trade to roll in and out. Because sooner or later someone is going to blow a fuse. And then there is war. And before you know it, the merchants are being shot out of the sea like it was 1941.
I think the wealth is precisely because, even if Iraq is a hellhole, there is a sort of Pax Romana being kept by the US as the strongest guarantee. Everyone benefits from this. The minute USA turned to isolationism, a power vacuum would emerge, and BOOM. New war.
Let us not forget, when all this is being debated at the UN and about Iraq is probably the 10%. The remaining 90% is just "done" by everyday administration, trade between countries etc. But it doesn't make headlines very often, unlike the 10%.
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