The Undone Deal
Ah...August, when Congress takes yet another break from their arduous duties.
Our Congress isn't the only governing body going on recess: the Iraqi Parliament has also gone into summer recess, and the White House is none too pleased with them, according to this commentary piece in the UK's Guardian. You see, those shiftless, lazy Iraqis have started their vacation without passing the oil law that BushCo so desperately wants.
Glad tidings from Baghdad at last. The Iraqi parliament has gone into summer recess without passing the oil law that Washington was pressing it to adopt. For the Bush administration this is irritating, since passage of the law was billed as a "benchmark" in its battle to get Congress not to set a timetable for US troop withdrawals. The political hoops through which the government of Nouri al-Maliki has been asked to jump were meant to be a companion piece to the US "surge". Just as General David Petraeus, the current US commander, is due to give his report on military progress next month, George Bush is supposed to tell Congress in mid-September how the Maliki government is moving forward on reform. ...
...the administration - particularly the vice-president, Dick Cheney - and the oil lobby are enraged that the oil law is stalled. The main reason is not that the Iraqi government and parliament are a lazy bunch of Islamist incompetents or narrow-minded sectarians, as is often implied. MPs are studying the law more carefully, and have begun to see it as a major threat to Iraq's national interest regardless of people's religion or sect. [Emphasis added]
How ironic: members of the Iraqi Parliament are finally showing signs of doing their jobs, and doing so with the best interests of the Iraqi people in mind, and the White House is irritated because the Iraqi government is not meeting one of those "benchmarks" designed to show that the Iraqi government is doing its job, and doing so with the best interests of the Iraqi people in mind.
What this is really about, of course, is oil, and western oil companies' desire for it at bargain basement prices. That's what this whole war was about, and what the surge is about, and what the permanent US military installations are about. And now the Iraqi people, through the Parliament, are going to throw a monkey wrench into the whole elaborate machinery, and with good cause.
The law that Washington and the US oil lobby really want would set the arrangements for foreign companies to operate in Iraq's oil sector. Independent analysts say the terms being proposed are far more favourable for foreign oil companies than those of any other oil-producing state in the region, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
So the Iraqi Parliament took its summer recess, which will give the various elements of the Iraqi society still extant a chance to study the bill and to lobby their members of parliament hard. And come September, when General Petraeus has to give his report, there won't be a check mark next to this benchmark.
Way to go, Iraqi Parliament!
Our Congress isn't the only governing body going on recess: the Iraqi Parliament has also gone into summer recess, and the White House is none too pleased with them, according to this commentary piece in the UK's Guardian. You see, those shiftless, lazy Iraqis have started their vacation without passing the oil law that BushCo so desperately wants.
Glad tidings from Baghdad at last. The Iraqi parliament has gone into summer recess without passing the oil law that Washington was pressing it to adopt. For the Bush administration this is irritating, since passage of the law was billed as a "benchmark" in its battle to get Congress not to set a timetable for US troop withdrawals. The political hoops through which the government of Nouri al-Maliki has been asked to jump were meant to be a companion piece to the US "surge". Just as General David Petraeus, the current US commander, is due to give his report on military progress next month, George Bush is supposed to tell Congress in mid-September how the Maliki government is moving forward on reform. ...
...the administration - particularly the vice-president, Dick Cheney - and the oil lobby are enraged that the oil law is stalled. The main reason is not that the Iraqi government and parliament are a lazy bunch of Islamist incompetents or narrow-minded sectarians, as is often implied. MPs are studying the law more carefully, and have begun to see it as a major threat to Iraq's national interest regardless of people's religion or sect. [Emphasis added]
How ironic: members of the Iraqi Parliament are finally showing signs of doing their jobs, and doing so with the best interests of the Iraqi people in mind, and the White House is irritated because the Iraqi government is not meeting one of those "benchmarks" designed to show that the Iraqi government is doing its job, and doing so with the best interests of the Iraqi people in mind.
What this is really about, of course, is oil, and western oil companies' desire for it at bargain basement prices. That's what this whole war was about, and what the surge is about, and what the permanent US military installations are about. And now the Iraqi people, through the Parliament, are going to throw a monkey wrench into the whole elaborate machinery, and with good cause.
The law that Washington and the US oil lobby really want would set the arrangements for foreign companies to operate in Iraq's oil sector. Independent analysts say the terms being proposed are far more favourable for foreign oil companies than those of any other oil-producing state in the region, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
So the Iraqi Parliament took its summer recess, which will give the various elements of the Iraqi society still extant a chance to study the bill and to lobby their members of parliament hard. And come September, when General Petraeus has to give his report, there won't be a check mark next to this benchmark.
Way to go, Iraqi Parliament!
Labels: Iraq, Iraq War, oil companies
posted by Diane at 12:50 PM
1 Comments:
Would that our Congress would have put off making a decision on the FISA bill so that they could contemplate it over the summer as well. Would that we showed at least as much public spiritedness as the Iraqi parliament is doing, at least in regard to this matter.
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