February 28, 2007
WHICH IS WHY SOVEREIGNTY SHOULD HAVE BEEN TRANSFERRED IN SUMMER 2003:
The Next Steps in Iraqi Economic Reform (Austin Bay, 2/28/07, Real Clear Politics)
The "oil reform" program in Iraq is long overdue, but the Iraqi government also deserves kudos for the effort. Democracy is often a slow, muddled and tedious operation (look at the U.S. Congress).Posted by Orrin Judd at February 28, 2007 8:44 AMUntil Iraq's democratically elected parliament was seated and the government selected, Iraq lacked "full sovereignty." Any "permanent oil reform" implemented by the Coalition Provisional Authority or an interim Iraqi government would have been portrayed as inherently illegitimate. The new bargain has its flaws (what legislation doesn't?), but illegitimacy isn't among them. The Iraqis have worked through the snarl on their own.
Implementing the new program will strengthen the national government while giving all regions an economic stake in its political success.
Any "permanent oil reform" implemented by the Coalition Provisional Authority or an interim Iraqi government would have been portrayed as inherently illegitimate.
What a load!
Kurdistan has been signing exploration agreements with oil companies while all of this has been going on.
The early explorationists were taking a calculated risk that the deals would stand, but really it wasn't that much of a contractual risk (honestly, there's probably more contractual risk in more established regimes that have been imposing excess profits taxes retroactively) -- because having equipment on the ground and a deal with an existing government usually trumps what might happen with another government. Kurdish authorities were never going to let the national government screw up those deals. They are, effectively, operating as a nation.
Posted by: kevin whited at February 28, 2007 9:37 AMStill redefining sovereignity, I see. Writing about the middle east is the language of modern, Western government just doesn't work.
There is an interesting passage in Clausewitz's On War in which the author, after identifying his cultural and familial attachment to the failed Polish state, explains that its fall was inevitable due to its backward political organization.
Clausewitz more or less held that Poland forfeited sovereignity by adherence to outmoded social and political models. Sound familiar?
Posted by: Lou Gots at February 28, 2007 1:35 PM
It is amazing to hear MSM/pundits/others chastise the Iraq fledging democracy while ignoring our 200+ yr system and all of its disfunctions.
Posted by: AWW at February 28, 2007 4:06 PMYes, Nazi justifications sound eerily familiar.
Posted by: oj at February 28, 2007 5:01 PM