The Coffeespy

Amidst cries of “blood for oil” on one side and “eff you moonbat” on the other, you have an Iraqi law being looked at that some say was what “the Americans” were hoping for.  From an Early Birded story by AP:

Reports in the Middle East said the proposal would provide for so-called product-sharing agreements that would give foreign oil companies 70 percent of the oil revenues to recover their initial investments then allow them 20 percent of the profits with no tax or restrictions on transferring funds abroad.

From the Left you’ll hear “told you so” and from the Right you’ll hear something about tinfoil hats.  Stripping away the spectrum, let’s look.

The law would make it possible for companies from any country in the world to take advantage, according to the report.  So there would be competition.  That’s capitalism.  The company with the best processes, most attractive offer, and best marketing to the Iraqis will come out on top, theoretically.

In addition, “the Americans” didn’t propose the law and vote on it.  That’s what the Iraqis did.

Now to the concerns… did “the Americans” put some Iraqis up to proposing the law?  Well, that’s possible.  Will “the Americans” have some accrued brownie points in taking advantage of it?  Again, that’s possible.  Heck, I’d even say probable.  But you know, every time something occurs that gives the U.S. an advantage, it’s not a conspiracy.  Sometimes, it just works out.

What about the law in general?  Well, I think it’s a bad move.  Why export your best asset and then allow all the profits to leak out of the country?  It didn’t work for Latin America in the twentieth century unless you happened to already BE wealthy.  It increased class differences, retarded the growth of a middle class, and pretty much guaranteed they’d be where they are now: categorized as the “third world.”

Final analysis: Bad law - potential payoff for the U.S. - conpiracy theories will increase exponentially if passed.

Learn Stuff 

• While I’m not big on the anti-oil crowd, there is a pretty good “against” article at Platform.
• There’s also a fairly good list of stories leading to where Iraqis are now with their oil law on Niqash.
• A longer AP story, I think the last paragraph sums it up nicely.