Oil.

My take on the Iraq mess is that 'W' has blown a hole in the middle east that is going to take at least two generations, if not longer, to repair, if it can ever be fully repaired. I fear that the US is not going to be able to fully withdraw, and when we try (and we will try, if not in the next two years, then as soon as we can elect a real president) we will fail. I pray that we are not laying the foundation for World War III.

My hope lays with a few intelligent politicians and leaders that can take control of this mess and clean it up. With Hillary not yet addressing the issue with any concrete proposal -- even refusing to state the obvious: we were lied to by this president -- and none of the other way-too-early presidential candidates saying anything of substance, I look to the few who are willing to open themselves up to the rightwingnuts and their incessant griping. Joe Biden's piece in the Boston Globe is one of the more sound, reasonable plans that anyone has proposed across the political spectrum. And of course, this means that Gary Gross has to slam it.

If the oil revenue sharing plan recently passed by Iraq's parliament is our great hope, we are in trouble. Some oil revenue sharing plan:

the Iraqi Government’s approval of the ‘Iraq Oil Law‘ has opened the door to a dismantled Iraq along sectarian fault lines, allows Big Oil corporations carte blanche to the world’s third largest proven oil reserves... [which] provides the required momentum for the dismantling of Iraq and the further destabilization of the entire middle east region.

Watch for the rapid disembowelment of Iraq and the creation of Shiastan, a Kurdish Republic and a sidelined Sunni state. The Iranians will annex and fold southern Iraq - Shiastan - into the Islamic Republic of Iran. Turkey will follow through with their promise of conflict against an emboldened Kurdistan in northern Iraq. The Sunnis will be left with nothing but a poor central region and one hell of a chip on their shoulders.

-http://warrenreports.tpmcafe.com/blog/opinionist/2007/feb/27/bush_genius_iraq_softened_gutted_ready_for_oil_vultures

But the best quote from Gary's piece, "Iraq is a soveriegn nation" is a little more than 4 years too late. The level of violence, according to Stars and Stripes remains at "the highest level since major combat operations ended" yet, "The Defense Intelligence Agency estimates that less than 10 percent of insurgents in Iraq are foreign fighters, and the majority of those are suicide bombers." Translation: the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish factions are fighting more vigorously than ever. Where's the room, or in Gary's words, what is the "incentive" for them to work together?

Gary Gross is the epitome of what is wrong in this country. Fighting keyboardists have no knowledge of what makes the middle east tick, no understanding of what we're up against, and no real solution to propose. Evidence: they still think that Saudi Arabia is our friend. They still think we can "defeat the terrorists" without defining (understanding?) who the terrorists are. The rightwingnuts think that blaming liberals is the answer to every problem this country faces.

I have some news for them: it wasn't just the Republic party that was attacked on Sept. 11. It was all of us.