Iraq Update
From Yahoo! News:
Iraqi officials declared Tuesday that the interim government has assumed full control of the country's oil industry ahead of the June 30 handover of sovereignty from the U.S.-led occupation administration.How about that War for Oil, eh?
"Today the most important natural resource has been returned to Iraqis to serve all Iraqis," Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said. "I'm pleased to announce that full sovereignty and full control on oil industry has been handed over to the oil ministry today and to the new Iraqi government as of today."
From the International Herald-Tribune:
Iraq's newly appointed minister of communications, a former mobile network designer, owns a home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is still a registered voter.
The minister of electricity, an avid Bulls basketball fan, has also kept his home,which is on the outskirts of Chicago. His voice still directs callers to leave him a message on the answering machine of the engineering firm that he left for "an indefinite leave of absence."
Iraq's new minister of industry and minerals, educated at the University of Connecticut, had lived in the United States since 1979 before returning to Iraq in 2003, where he still talks animatedly about the Huskies of the University of Connecticut, known for their championship basketball teams.
Links to the United States run deep among many in the interim Iraqi government, even as the diverse, 33-member body gears up to assert its independence from the U.S. government.
Matt's Chat
Well, honestly, does any of this make a difference? I mean, I suspect John "Waffles" Kerry will win Taxachusetts no matter if the Iraqi minister of communications votes for the President. (I can only assume that these guys hold dual citizenship. The "non-partisan" journalists at IHT didn't bother to let us know...)I think you'd have to be a Frenchie idiot to think that this new government in Iraq is going to be anti-American in any way. Liberation after all...
Mark's Remarks
Well, maybe in 60 years the Iraqis will hate us and be as unthankful and appreciative as the French are now. God, I hope not, but one never knows. Of course, the French have been fouling up liberations for years. Look at their own Revolution and Reign of Terror. They couldn't even follow us upstart Americans' model of success. Nope, they had to bring out guillotines and chop off heads and stuff; and they still couldn't get it right. Jealousy is just so sad, isn't it?
Seriously, I am happy for the Iraqi people, and hope they get a jump start on taking over sovereignty of their country, and take it fully back from people who would try to return it to savagery. Take the gift of freedom, hold it tight, and protect and expand it across the world, fellow freedom lovers.
