What should Big Oil's role in Iraq be?

"There is no question that Baghdad needs the expertise and capital of international oil companies to kick-start its oil industry.

Thirty years of war, sanctions and poor government have left the country's oil infrastructure in tatters." BBC News website, 2 July 2008

I especially like the second statement. Typical of 'democratic' media in the West, a glib observation, made as if the problems referred to were of Iraq's own making and nothing to do with us, and Western companies are now here to save the day. Who was responsible for the aforementioned sanctions? Who bombed the oil infrastructure back to the stone-age throughout the 90s? Hmmmmm.

Poor Government is a good one too. The Iraqi government's incompetence clearly at fault for allowing the country to be bombed to smithereens by the US and Britain for the past 17 years.

Never mind. Western Oil companies will save you from your incompetence.