Will the Iraq parliament's proposed oil law help reduce tensions between sectarian groups in Iraq?

No

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by Michael Burgwin

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Iraq's proposed oil law, as written and pushed by the US, will not reduce tensions because it will not produce significant oil revenues for the Iraqis until after US oil companies have gotten all they want. The deal is another sham emerging out of the secret chambers of G.W. Bush's white house.

Under the current proposal, first dibs for Iraqi oil will go to the US oil oligarchs who will be doing Iraq a favor, they say. Truth be told, Iraq's oil refining infrastructure never did recover from Bush Senior's Desert Storm in the 1990s. Not only did the hardware take a hard hit, but the ensuing embargo apparently prevented Iraq from sending some of its better students to oil refining school. So, the good deed boys from Exxon will modernize the Iraqi oil industry in exchange for all the money they need to pay for all of the improvements that will take decades to complete. But that's not all, the oil giants will get 20% of the oil profits, after the upgrades, instead of the more typical 10% that is agreed to when someone other than GW Bush is governing Oz.

Needless to say, if the oil law is passed as is, US troubles in Iraq will be bad for everybody except Big Oil and, of course, the campaign coffers belonging to any Congressperson and other politicos who might have helped the cause. For the Iraqis and US troops it will mean more death.

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