More thoughts on draft oil law

If there is concern over the timely distribution of oil revenue, then the idea mentioned previously of having an outside organization do the distributing seems like a good solution. If some want the revenue distributed by the central government and others want it done by a third party, then let the ones who want it done by the central government have their revenue distributed by the central government and the ones who want it done by a third party have it done by a third party.

Another way of equitably distributing oil revenue and addressing Kurdish concerns over management could be to divide the oil fields between the various groups. The Shiites and Kurds could keep managing the fields in their regions, but the Sunnis and any other groups would get to manage fields in the Shiite and Kurdish regions proportionate to their population.

The potential for manipulation or coercion of Iraqis of all groups by those who control Iraq's oil or oil revenue is great, so care should be taken to pass a law that will ensure that these things will not occur.

posted: wednesday, may 9, 2007, 10:27 AM ET
update: wednesday, may 9, 2007, 10:33 AM ET

tags: iraq draft oil law