Whose Oil? Whose War?

It appears as of this morning that the Iraqis themselves are beginning (finally) to question just whose oil beneath the sand and whose war this carnage on their sand is. Clearly, a victory for President Bush in Iraqi's Parliament this month--vis-a-vis the oil contracts--might run counter to Iraq ever becoming a sovereign country.

This law, as it is currently written, sanctions contracts between Iraq's individual regions and foreign oil companies. It puts an end to a nationalized petroleum industry that has provided most of the country's (admittedly) minuscule revenues. Over time, the oil revenues might sustain an independent Kurdistan, along with a Shia state, and a Sunni state (though the Sunnis don't have much oil, at least among the known Iraqi reserves). The law sets up a system that opens the door for foreign companies to make the country's oil policy. A new federal Oil and Gas Council is to assist the Council of Ministers, "in coordination with the producing provinces and regions."

Just what will we tell the young woman in the photo below if it comes out that 3300-plus of her comrades have died and continue to die for an oil policy that looks as though it is is dead upon arrival?


That's right. It's her war!