Image: ALI AL-SAADI/AFP/Getty Images.

The Baghdad International Trade Fair kicks off today. In case you’re not fully up to speed, Hussain Qaragholi, President of the U.S. Business Council in Iraq, explained after last year’s event that the fair offers ‘distinguished’ companies like ExxonMobil, GE, Citi,  Honeywell & presumably Dodge, the opportunity to:

develop mutually beneficial economic partnerships with Iraq.

Having read this, I suddenly found myself wondering  just exactly how mutually beneficial a big fat contract to supply law enforcement vehicles might be to a population whose displacement due to conflict is estimated to be about 2.5m people.

I don’t know how my mind comes up with these hypothetical flights of fancy. I really don’t.