Sometimes two seemingly unrelated news stories could be related in a way not known to the public. The Senate Democrats stalled out again in an effort to oppose continuing the occupation of Iraq. This time Majority Leader Reid(D-Nev) called off a vote on the Levin-Biden proposal to repeal the overly broad 2002 force authorization and narrow the scope of American force missions in Iraq. Publicly, Reid said pressure from 9-11 victim families caused him to delay the vote in favor of action on another bill.
A few pages further on, the paper reports that the Iraqi Cabinet has approved an overdue oil revenue sharing bill that allows international investment in its oil industry. The United States considered the bill a critical development in transforming Iraq into a western style capitalist state. Previously, the oil sector was government owned. This development is certainly another bonanza for big oil which wants to redevelop the oil field infrastructure and lock in long term production sharing contracts with Iraq. Production sharing arrangements between a nation and a multinational were common in the 1960s before most Middle East oil sectors were nationalized in a wave of Arab nationalism. Such an agreement is a reversal of basic economic policy and in the eyes of critics the first step to total privatization. Some Iraqis see privatization of the oil industry as a major goal of the invasion. A quarter of Iraq's fields are undeveloped and the rest are under producing because of security problems. Iraq production volume fell by 8% in 2005. The deal must be approved by the Iraqi parliament which does not come back into session until March.
9/11 families? Sure, Senator Reid. I hear the Brooklyn Dodgers are for sale too.