Reply #6: There has been far too little attention paid to this.

[potone]

I remember reading in "The Nation" a few years ago that the insurgency began in earnest when Paul Bremmer insisted upon privatizing the Iraqi oil industry. It is striking to me in the press response to the Baker commission report that almost no attention has been paid to the proposal to privatize Iraq's oil industry even though it is listed as a non-negotiable condition for American financial assistance and it is contrary to international law to disregard a nation's laws during a military occupation. It distresses me that even the few progressive journalists are ignoring this, especially since Bush, after denying before the war that oil was the issue, has recently claimed the necessity of the war on the basis of a perceived threat to America's oil supplies if a tyrannical and anti-American regime should take over Iraq.