General Petraeus states the obvious:
Iraqi leaders have failed to take advantage of a reduction in violence to make adequate progress toward resolving their political differences, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday.
Petraeus, who is preparing to testify to Congress next month on the Iraq war, said in an interview that “no one” in the U.S. and Iraqi governments “feels that there has been sufficient progress by any means in the area of national reconciliation,” or in the provision of basic public services.
No duh. Considering how far back the sectarian tension there goes, along with the fact that no government can truly address these kinds of things in the first place, the expectation here is akin to an aerobics trainer expecting Michael Moore to do military-style “clap” pushups. Anyway, moving on…
The Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has won passage of some legislation that aids the cause of reconciliation, drawing praise from President Bush and his supporters. But the Iraqi government also has deferred action on some of its most important legislative goals, including laws governing the exploitation of Iraq’s oil resources, that the Bush administration had identified as necessary benchmarks of progress toward reconciliation. (emphasis mine)
As the laws referred to consist of the package mentioned here, which would give foreign oil companies long-term contracts and put their representatives in control of the majority of Iraqi oil fields, a version of which was put in place in Kurdistan that Dennis Kucinich pointed out served to funnel even more money towards the pockets of a Bush loyalist, that line is way more literal than the author of the Petraeus article intended. This kind of move being a “benchmark” could be seen as a reverse protection racket — “pass this bill or we won’t leave!” — if not for the bases already being constructed.
