Agreeing On Oil
Joe Lieberman today called for a truce to give the new commander in Iraq a chance to achieve his mission. The swarm from the noise machine indicates that won't be happening if they have their way. But, regardless of the naysayers, progress is being made - not just militarily, but politically. The Iraqi Cabinaet has managed to hammer out an agreement on oil revenue sharing for the entire country.
BAGHDAD, Feb. 26 — The Iraqi cabinet approved a draft of a law today that would set guidelines for countrywide distribution of oil revenues and foreign investment in the immense oil industry.
The endorsement marked a major agreement among the country’s ethnic and sectarian political blocs on one of Iraq’s most divisive issues.
The draft law approved by the cabinet allows the central government to distribute oil revenues to the provinces or regions by population, which could lessen the economic concerns of the rebellious Sunni Arabs, who fear being cut out of Iraq’s vast potential oil wealth by the dominant Shiites and Kurds.
The law also grants regional oil companies the power to sign contracts with foreign companies for exploration and development of fields, opening the door for investment by foreign oil companies in a country whose oil reserves rank among the world’s top three in size.
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Since last year, senior Bush administration officials and top American commanders here have said a new oil law is crucial to the country’s political and economic development, and they have been pressuring Iraqi leaders to make passage of the law a priority. In recent weeks, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the senior American envoy here, has been in intense talks with Kurdish leaders in the north to overcome their objections to the draft. Iraqi officials say Mr. Khalilzad’s negotiations were crucial to winning unanimous cabinet approval today.
We have to give this a chance to work and cannot be forced - by our own politicians - into a precipitous withdrawal.
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Pajamas Media — Tuesday, 27 February , 2007 @ 8:15 am
By ajacksonian, Tuesday, 27 February , 2007 @ 8:29 am
Get the money out of Baghdad and into the Provinces… and as Provincial elections are slated for this year, expect the political parties that have been concentrating on Baghdad and sectarian strife to now be faced with Provinces and tribes, which they have paid zero attention to. Suddenly all of that *support* they have, which has been putting tribal elders and sheikhs at risk boomerangs right around when the local tribes start to say: what have you done for US lately?
Fur will fly.
That is the best decision possible to break up the political logjam… get the money out of the equation on the National side and make the Provinces figure it out. The concept is: Federalism. And I much prefer to watch political parties bickering about local politics than grandstanding in Baghdad and using imported terrorists to try and get their way. Now the tribes will finally get their say, and they have not been happy being in the cross-hairs of the terrorists…