Friday, December 15, 2006

What does recommendation number 28 really mean?

The Iraq Study Group Report suggests in recommendation number 2 to “Support the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq” which makes it somewhat difficult to understand the real meaning of number 28 when it says “Oil revenues should accrue to the central government and be shared on the basis of population”, since how do you share if there is only one central government? Now, if what they actually propose is that the oil income should be shared by the population directly on a per capita basis, this would indeed be a much welcomed proposition, given that we all know how impossible it is to construe a real democracy when oil revenues go directly to central government coffers and with it makes a mockery of any balance of power in the society. In the chaotic Iraq trusting the Iraqi people with their oil revenues is wiser than trusting any central government with it.