Juan Cole/LA Times report on break up of Iraq

[thefloyd]

Juan Cole comments

"A further step in the break-up of Iraq: according to the LA Times, the Kurdish regional confederacy is giving a Norwegian oil company the right to develop new oil fields in its area without consulting the federal government in Baghdad. The Kurds and Norwegians maintain that this is legal according to the new Iraqi constitution, which devolves control over natural resources discovered in the future to the provinces or provincial confederacies. Next the Shiites in the South will do the same thing. Baghdad will be starved of these new revenue streams, and the provinces will have their own source of income. I don't see how the country stays together this way, or how the central government ever amounts to anything."
www.juancole.com

LA Times article Referenced
http://tinyurl.com/8gwaj

In my esteemed expert Middle East Quagmire Opinion Kurds none to happy with oil production capabilities in Iraq so Outsource to Norwegian oil company with experience pumping oil from un-secure areas.

Also, Kurds argue any oil discovered post constitution belongs solely to Kurdish province not Federal government.
Just fuckin fantastic

[Doctor_J]

1. THis was doomed to become a Civil War from day 1

Sadly, our history-impaired, bubble-residing dimwit believed the "candy and flowers" lies from his boot-lickers, and so the quagmire is a total surprise to him.

[JuniperLea]

3. He should have listened to Pappy

Just this once.

Either that, or Pappy should have realized it would have been better to tell Anthony that television is much better now than the way it was and it was good what he was doing.

Reverse psychology for despots.

[JuniperLea]

2. Norway beware

You could be on Bush's radar.

That is one of the many reasons Iraq and its varied people need to work this out on their own without outside influence.

They need to divvy that place back up and let all those different people have back what was taken from them by some English map maker.

[Tesha]

4. I dunno -- you can hide a lot of Norwegian insurgents in those fjords!

> Norway beware -- You could be on Bush's radar.

I dunno -- you can hide a lot of Norwegian insurgents in those fjords!
And isn't ludefisk a recognized chemical/biological weapon?

Tesha

[Doctor_J]

5. If Smirky tries anything with Norway

the wrath of the UN will be turned onto US. That's the day we become 1941 Germany.

[JuniperLea]

6. At the rate Smirky is going

he will evoke that wrath anyway...actually, I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet!

[thefloyd]

7. Kick

These developments seem important to me