Catch-22, anyone?
No new government is really being formed in Iraq. Note two salient excerpts from the article:
Wait a sec -- the failure to form a government is strengthening the insurgents, but they can't "repel and pursue" them until they form a new government? Oy.
I love, by the way, the actual purpose of this article: "Rice and Cheney Are Said to Push Iraqi Politicians on Stalemate". "Uhh, just so you know, guys, it's bad to not have any government. I know we destroyed your old one, but now you're not ruled by evil, and so anything's better than that, right? Just ... get your shit together."
Also, how cute:
I bet this was news to Barzani. "Oh, we need a government? So that's what's been wrong!" Holy crap. And how patronizing this makes Rice -- and, for that matter, our entire position in Iraq -- seem.
I don't follow this issue as closely as I should, but every time I read about it (it was above the fold today), I get sick. Saw a bumpersticker on Telegraph Ave. yesterday: What's our oil doing under their soil?!"
... Shiites .. make up a majority in Iraq but nearly three months after national elections have yet to form a new government -- a failure that American officials fear is giving strength and confidence to the insurgents.
...
Many American officials say the political slowdown in Baghdad is hurting the ability of Iraqi security forces to repel and pursue insurgents.
Wait a sec -- the failure to form a government is strengthening the insurgents, but they can't "repel and pursue" them until they form a new government? Oy.
I love, by the way, the actual purpose of this article: "Rice and Cheney Are Said to Push Iraqi Politicians on Stalemate". "Uhh, just so you know, guys, it's bad to not have any government. I know we destroyed your old one, but now you're not ruled by evil, and so anything's better than that, right? Just ... get your shit together."
Also, how cute:
Ms. Rice on Friday telephoned Massoud Barzani, a leader of one of Iraq's main Kurdish parties, a senior State Department official in Washington said. The official stressed that Ms. Rice did not tell him how to work toward forming a government, just that the process needed to be concluded. [emph. added]
I bet this was news to Barzani. "Oh, we need a government? So that's what's been wrong!" Holy crap. And how patronizing this makes Rice -- and, for that matter, our entire position in Iraq -- seem.
I don't follow this issue as closely as I should, but every time I read about it (it was above the fold today), I get sick. Saw a bumpersticker on Telegraph Ave. yesterday: What's our oil doing under their soil?!"
posted by nori | 11:09
2 Comments:
Regarding the bumpersticker:
Oil is found in the *pores* of soils, rocks. Oil does not form *pools* beneath the subsurface (just a technical note).
If pores are connected (tortuosity), then oil may flow (permeability), either by natural pressure gradients or helped by pumping. Flow may be vertical or horizontal, such that oil may be extracted several kilometers from the source rock. So, who *owns* the oil?
In the same way that groundwater resources are held publicly, oil is also governed collectively (and therein are the legal complications).
Another analogy: The air we breath from the atmosphere is considered collectively (cf smoking bans, air pollution laws). In the same way, should not oil be considered "ours", and not just "theirs"?
As for the bumpersticker: The "soil" mentioned there is rhetorical ("on [country's] soil"), not literal. (Quite the literalist today, eh?)
As for common goods: (1) our countries are not contiguous, so it's kind of ludicrous to assume that we have any claim to that oil as we would air; (2) the point (clearly) was, the war in Iraq is not being fought to "root our terrorism," as the administration would have us believe, but rather to gain access to the oil.
You've missed the forest for the trees on both of these comments today.
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