Associated Press Gingerly Eats Crow

Stable Iraq could influence the Middle East

"The role of regional power broker may seem far-fetched for Iraq — a devastated land best known for car bombs, death squads and suicide attackers.

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"Still, countries of the Middle East cannot ignore the potential role of a resurgent Iraq, a nation of 28 million people, bordering Iran to the east, Syria and Jordan to the west and sitting on one of the world's major pools of oil."

"For those reasons, the United States cannot afford to lose focus on Iraq, which will remain a strategic and important country even after the last of the 140,000 American soldiers have gone home.

Clearly Iraq is a long way from re-establishing itself as a major force in the region. In a first step, however, representatives of 35 international oil companies are to meet this month with Iraq's oil minister in London to discuss improving Iraqi gas and oil fields. Fellow Arab countries are talking about upgrading their relations with Iraq."

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"For those reasons, the United States cannot afford to lose focus on Iraq, which will remain a strategic and important country even after the last of the 140,000 American soldiers have gone home."

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"Iraq's vast oil reserves alone should guarantee the country a major regional role.

Current estimates put Iraq's proven oil reserves at 115 billion barrels. But many experts believe that figure could rise by another 70 billion to 80 billion barrels once better security allows for renewed exploration.

If those estimates prove accurate, Iraq would have the world's second-largest proven oil reserves behind Saudi Arabia and ahead of Iran.

As Iran and Saudi Arabia compete for influence in the region, each has a strong interest in using Iraq as leverage against the other.

Neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia can afford to have Iraq throw itself solidly behind the other. Each wants a stable Iraq — but not one strong enough to threaten its neighbors as when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990."

AP might have mentioned the Iran-Iraq war, too, but whatever. I've always said this was never about American lust for oil. It was always about changing the political landscape in a region, dominated by brutal dictatorships and fanatical ideologies feeding upon the revenue generated by that oil that constitutes 60% of the world's energy and starting in the country where it made the most sense for so many, many reasons. It was about opening Iraq up to the power of free markets under the control of a free people.

With Iraq now given the chance to develop into a working democracy, that whole dynamic is changing.

Go Iraq!!

h/t Jules Crittenden

Read Crittenden's entry, too. I'm with him on the AP's need to use language such as "the rosy predictions from the Bush administration that Iraq would emerge as a beacon of Western-style democracy in the Arab world have been long discredited." Bullshit!! Iraq has made great progress and after all, no democracy is ever in a state of stasis. Democracy is a process. It never ends. And as he points out, "Iraq is a democracy. Just yesterday, the democratically elected government of Iraq approved regional elections, in a deal that made important concessions to its minority populations."