Iraqi’s See new agreement with US as flexible?

Juan Cole takes a look at the Iraqi response to the new Security Agreement between them and the US – and finds that that Iraqi’s have a good reason for signing a bill that originally most of them rejected:

The Iraqi government believes it can by signing this bilateral agreement with Bush get back its full sovereignty and escape the humiliation of being in receivership to the United Nations and having Bremer’s law give foreign carpetbaggers the run of Iraq. This belief explains why even the proud Nuri al-Maliki is willing to sign on the dotted line.

Looks like both countries see light at the end of the tunnel.

Shell gets 25 year monopoly on Iraqi Oil

I’m trying to remember why that whole “war on Iraq thing” was started. I remember hearing something about WMD’s, and stopping bin Laden and stuff – but certainly not because of oil.

Oh – wait – Shell oil company has a 25 year monopoly on Iraq’s oil supplies. The problem for some people? Evidently the deal was done in secret. So – will it still stand?

We almost have an Iraqi agreement! Oh, wait. Nope.

The Bush administration – still in control for another 2.5 months, still is pushing for a new Iraq security agreement, and have rolled out their final, final, no more changes, no takebacks offer.

Only problem is, Moktada al-Sadr, with one of the biggest Shiite groups, really doesn’t like the idea. Why?

“We will continue to condemn the Iraqi-American pact because it will legislate the American presence in Iraq,” Mr. Battat, a cleric, said in a Friday sermon. “Sadr City has lost 4,300 martyrs since the invasion, so how could we accept this agreement? We say no to the Iraqi government if it wishes to sign anything.”

Oh, yeah. That whole “we don’t want American armies in our country” thing. Might be a damper.

So what’s really holding up the Iraqi security agreement?

For the last few months, the security pact between Iraq and the United States has lagged on. If an agreement isn’t reached by the end of the year, then the US could, by theory, be thrown out of Iraq.

Not that that’s going to happen, but still.

So what’s the hold up? Well, for some crazy reason, the Iraqi government thinks the United States wants to attack other countries, so they don’t want to give the US permission to attack other countries by using Iraq as a base.

Gee, I wonder what gave them that idea?

Oil still the sticking point to peace in Iraq

The biggest problem to getting the various ethnic groups together in Iraq is figuring out how to fairly split the profit from oil. (You know, that thing that America didn’t go to war for. And if you believe that, I’ve got this bridge in Alaska to sell you.)

Turns out it’s still a big issue, as Kurds in the north are holding up parliamentary processes because they don’t like they deal they’re getting.

It’s the kind of thing that Iraq has to solve if they’re ever going to have a unified nation, instead of just squabbling areas. And so far, oil has proven to be something that people are willing to kill each other over.