I write this not in support of the Surge, which is clearly a failure in its strategic goal - to wit, bring political reconciliation to Iraq, but only as a reminder that there is no good solution for the United States in Iraq.

The Debacle will leave Iraq in ruins for years and years. and there is nothing we can do about it now.

The Iraq occupation is a deliberate strategy by BushCo to inflate oil prices and enrich the Saudis, the Bush family and other investors who are pulling Bush's strings.  Their financial interests that have coalesced with the Neocons' goals to shove this war in Iraq down our throats and now to keep the occupation going and the Iraq oil production low and steady while OPEC manipulates prices and they all get rich.  The whole point of killing Saddam Hussein was to remove the maverick that bucked the system against OPEC's price manipulation strategies.  Remember, oil hit the unheard of high price of $50 a barrel in the mid 1990's, then plummeted to $10 a barrel in 1999.  Since the Iraq invasion, OPEC has steadily increased the price of oil, and those billionaires are invested in taking us for all we're worth from now until the oil runs out in Saudi Arabia.  They get rich while we pay the price at the pump, with the economy collapsing, and with the death of soldiers, same as it ever was.  Now the Iraq government has no incentive to crank up oil production since we are footing the bill for security and infrastructure development (I won't call it rebuilding at this point, we're well beyond that).  If Iraq was raking in huge oil revenues, Americans would be screaming for them to pay for their own reconstruction, long government "vacations" etc., etc.  And they'd have to share the revenues with the oppressed political minorities (Shiites and Kurds).  In fact, they hedge their bets by refusing to state how they will divide the oil profits, even though one of the benchmarks requires them to make a plan for dividing the profits.  Instead, they spend months on our bill deciding to decide later how it will be split.  
Ending the occupation will be the impetus for Iraq to increase production and lower world oil prices.  Benefits to us:  Reduced gas prices, an end to the senseless abuse of our military, and hopefully a chance to recover our good name in the world and our economy,

When you get inside their little lizard brains you begin to understand the fiendishly efficient logic that has worked so well for them for so long.

How do you explain the following facts and statements:

The number of US deaths in Iraq is down to 4 in July, from 66 a year ago (at least as of a few days ago).

"Scattered battles go on, especially against al-Qaida holdouts north of Baghdad. But organized resistance, with the steady drumbeat of bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and ambushes that once rocked the capital daily, has all but ceased." (Burns and Reid in recent AP article)

"Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told the AP on Thursday that the insurgency as a whole has withered to the point where it is no longer a threat to Iraq's future. "Very clearly, the insurgency is in no position to overthrow the government or, really, even to challenge it," Crocker said. "It's actually almost in no position to try to confront it. By and large, what's left of the insurgency is just trying to hang on." (AP article)

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that a controversy is raging in the Iraqi parliament about the veto exercised by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani against a bill passed last week enabling elections in the fall. MP and former court judge Wael Abd al-Latif of the State Party charged that the veto was "unconstitutional." He said that when a bill is vetoed, it has to go back to parliament for another vote, and needs a 3/5s majority to overturn the veto. Abd al-Latif also pointed to the constitution's requirement that the presidential council act through consensus. In this case, Talabani and Adel Abdul Mahdi vetoed the bill while their colleague, the other vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, was out of town! He should have been consulted about appointing a proxy to vote for him but was not.

A member of the Sunni fundamentalist Iraqi Accord Front, Khalaf al-Ulyan, called for Talabani to be removed from the presidency, on the grounds that his veto derived from ethnic solidarity rather than from a concern to act on behalf of the entire Iraqi nation.

"The number of incidents of violence nationwide in Iraq is less than a tenth of what we were experiencing in the spring of 2007. The casualty rate among American troops is the lowest in more than four years and continues to improve. Ethnic and sectarian violence among the Iraqi population has declined to levels not seen since the early days of the war.

Iraq's security forces, with only modest coalition support, have demonstrated unprecedented initiative by taking control and assuming security of previously insurgent-dominated areas like Amara, Basra, Diwaniya and Sadr City. These actions signal a more confident and capable Iraqi leadership and military.

CATAPULT THAT PROPAGANDA

 "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in," he said, "to kind of catapult the propaganda."

MLM, I've posted some of these other materials to try to balance the information and discussion taking place on this site, and perhaps stimulate the discussion. I follow Iraq fairly closely because I have a son who is an Army Ranger now back in Iraq for a second deployment. I also happen to have a buddy who is working hard to get a oil contract signed with Iraq.

"BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq opened its giant oilfields to foreign firms on Monday, putting British and U.S. companies in pole position five years after U.S.-led troops invaded the country to oust Saddam Hussein.

The move to invite bids for the development of Iraq's largest producing fields should mark the return of the oil majors whose cash and expertise Iraq needs to restore its oil infrastructure that has been hard hit by sanctions and war.

The Oil Ministry said they were open for long-term development contracts. Iraq has prequalified 41 foreign firms.

Iraq said last week it also hoped to sign six short-term oil technical support contracts during the next month.

Five of the short-term deals that have been under discussion are with Royal Dutch Shell; Shell in partnership with BHP Billiton; BP; Exxon Mobil and Chevron in partnership with Total."

MLM, I don't understand why you believe oil companies shouldn't try to get contracts with Iraq.