Re: the Silence is Deafening...the Iraq Study Group report
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RECOMMENDATION 19: The President and the leadership of his national security team should remain in close and frequent contact with the Iraqi leadership. These contacts must convey a clear message: there must be action by the Iraqi government to make substantial progress toward the achievement of milestones. In public diplomacy, the President should convey as much detail as possible about the substance of these exchanges in order to keep the American people, the Iraqi people, and the countries in the region well informed.
I think it's lame because I don't think a study group needs to be commissioned to come up with something like that. I could get the same recommendation from folks at the local tavern.
[/ QUOTE ]Try to read this the other way around. The fact that we need study groupd to recommened this, means that someone is not doing something that should be elementary. Translation of Recommendation: "The administration must do the obvious. The fact that we need to spell out the obvious to the administration does not mean we are doing a redundant job; it means the administration is shortsighted."
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RECOMMENDATION 28: Oil revenue sharing. Oil revenues should accrue to the central government and be shared on the basis of population. No formula that gives control over revenues from future fields to the regions or gives control of oil fields to the regions is compatible with national reconciliation.
Would some please enlighten me on how this can be enforced??
[/ QUOTE ]This is actually in line with keeping Iraq intact. The struggle of ethnic groups, rhetoric aside, also involves dominating as much oil revenue as possible. The Study Group recommends taking out this factor by ensuring an equitable sharing of oil wealth amongs regions. You get oil dollars even if your region doesn't have oil.
How they will do this? Through plain old central planning. (Don't say it.)
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Would these same folks recommend that industries in the U.S.A. operate the same way?
[/ QUOTE ] No. And we can see why.
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My first impression of this report is that it's extermely underwhelming in it's content and recommendations. We've been waiting 8+ months for this?
[/ QUOTE ]Yeah, it's scary. The pervasiveness of ultra-patriotism has significantly corrupted the quality of public dialogue. And rendered accountability almost a meaningless term.
Mickey Brausch
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