Deadeye in Baghdad
Enough of this civil war bullshit, it's time to get those petro-dollars flowing. And who better to intimidate the Iraqi government into getting its shit together and pumping out that oil like good little gas station attendants than the Shooter himself. Dick Cheney lurched and wheezed his way out of his undisclosed location to make an unannounced visit to Baghdad today, where his message was "We've got to pull together. We've got to get this work done. It's game time."
"Vice President Cheney flew into Baghdad unannounced on Wednesday intending to urge top Iraqi officials to reconcile a divided government and move forward on key legislative initiatives in an attempt to quell Iraq's unrelenting violence, U.S. officials said.
The urgency of the situation was emphasized by an explosion that rattled windows in the U.S. Embassy inside the heavily guarded Green Zone, where Cheney spent the day meeting with Iraqi and U.S. officials. After the early evening blast, reporters following Cheney were moved to a basement "attack shelter," but Cheney was not moved and "his business was not disrupted..."
His "business"? And what might that be? Oh yeah, sure, he doesn't want the Iraqi parliament to take a two-month recess. (Whose country is it, anyway? Oh, yeah...) And he wants the government to chill out the sectarian violence. But probably Cheney's visit to Iraq had one central, urgent purpose: the implementation of the new Iraqi Oil Law which privatizes Iraq's oil industry and allows foreign companies to buy into it.
The Oil Law document was leaked in February, but it's been almost 3 months and there's been no indication that the Iraqis are moving forward with it. Maybe they don't want to? I can see why they might have qualms about carving up their formerly nationalized oil industry and selling it off to foreign corporations. If it was hard for ordinary Iraqis to get in on their oil wealth under Saddam, wait until it's owned by foreign corporations. Iraqis need every cent (or Dinar or Euro) they can get from their oil. Their oil. While he was in Baghdad, Cheney might have been able to pick up a few fresh beating hearts to replenish his emergency supply, but he can't take their oil. He can only yell at them about it, then hunch his way back to the US, leaving a trail of blood and slime in his wake.
"Vice President Cheney flew into Baghdad unannounced on Wednesday intending to urge top Iraqi officials to reconcile a divided government and move forward on key legislative initiatives in an attempt to quell Iraq's unrelenting violence, U.S. officials said.
The urgency of the situation was emphasized by an explosion that rattled windows in the U.S. Embassy inside the heavily guarded Green Zone, where Cheney spent the day meeting with Iraqi and U.S. officials. After the early evening blast, reporters following Cheney were moved to a basement "attack shelter," but Cheney was not moved and "his business was not disrupted..."
His "business"? And what might that be? Oh yeah, sure, he doesn't want the Iraqi parliament to take a two-month recess. (Whose country is it, anyway? Oh, yeah...) And he wants the government to chill out the sectarian violence. But probably Cheney's visit to Iraq had one central, urgent purpose: the implementation of the new Iraqi Oil Law which privatizes Iraq's oil industry and allows foreign companies to buy into it.
The Oil Law document was leaked in February, but it's been almost 3 months and there's been no indication that the Iraqis are moving forward with it. Maybe they don't want to? I can see why they might have qualms about carving up their formerly nationalized oil industry and selling it off to foreign corporations. If it was hard for ordinary Iraqis to get in on their oil wealth under Saddam, wait until it's owned by foreign corporations. Iraqis need every cent (or Dinar or Euro) they can get from their oil. Their oil. While he was in Baghdad, Cheney might have been able to pick up a few fresh beating hearts to replenish his emergency supply, but he can't take their oil. He can only yell at them about it, then hunch his way back to the US, leaving a trail of blood and slime in his wake.
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