Benchmarks? What benchmarks?

Hat tip to Barbin at Daily Kos for pointing me to this tasty tidbit that I read shortly after hearing about yet another former Bush/Iraq war supporter abandoning the president, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), and calling for a withdrawal timeline…

Way back in January when “President” Bush announced his “surge” strategy (and I use that term very loosely), he said that one of the benchmarks (though he didn’t use that word) of success would be the time that the Iraqi government (I use that term very loosely) passed legislation regarding oil revenue sharing.

Said Bush: “To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country's economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis.”

Spiffy, huh?

Bush didn’t stop spewing this crap in January…

February: “They're in the process of finalizing a law that will allow for the sharing of all revenues among Iraq's peoples...making it clear to the Iraqi people that they have a stake in the future of their country by having a stake in the oil revenues.”

March: “As we help the Iraqis secure their capital, their leaders are also beginning to meet the benchmarks they have laid out for political reconciliation. Last month, Iraq's Council of Ministers approved a law that would share oil revenues among Iraqi people.”

Hmmmmmm…

April: “The Council of Ministers recently approved legislation that would provide a framework for an equitable sharing of oil resources…”

Okaaaaayyyyyy…

May: “The council of ministers has approved legislation that would provide a framework for equitable sharing of oil resources. We strongly believe...that a good oil bill will help unite the country.”

Wait a second, something’s amiss here…

June: “At home, most of the attention has focused on important pieces of legislation that the Iraqi Parliament must pass to foster political reconciliation -- including laws to share oil revenues...I speak to the Prime Minister and I speak to the Presidency Council quite often, and I remind them we expect the government to function, and to pass law.”

Did I just sense a change in tone there??? I think I did…

Two days ago, WH mouthpiece Tony “Rhymes with Blog” Snow announced that the “President”: “...had phone calls with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the three members...They do report that they have now transmitted to the council of representatives, their legislature, the oil law, and are hoping quite soon to have a related piece of legislation, one that has to deal with the distribution of oil and hydrocarbon revenues, before the legislature quite soon.”



Quite soon huh? Well, many not as 'quite soon’ lasted until yesterday when attempts to pass a key oil law were snarled once again by vast differences among Iraq's Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders, thereby delaying any debate about the issue even though PM al-Maliki had claimed a breakthrough.

And it wasn’t a minor glitch that stalled the legislation but rather a fatwa (religious edict) issued by a Sunni organization that said the bill was “religously forbidden.”

Oh, and the Kurds also objected...

As did the Shiites...

Yessirre… getting an oil revenue sharing law passed should be a cinch right?

And when it’s passed… the violence will end as well, right?



Right????