Le Shorter: Die More

Republican senators voted to continue the filibuster against removing American troops from the Iraq Civil War, 52-47. During the all night debate, the most cogent remarks were made in the early morning hours by Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) who noted that one of the reasons for the inability of the Iraqi parliament to agree on an oil law was that the U.S. backed proposal gives the Iraq National Oil Company control of only 17 out 80 oil fields with the rest to be privatized. The neoconservative think tank, Heritage Foundation, calls the proposed law a "model" for the rest of OPEC. The reversal of nationalization is one reason why the U.S. gets so little support from regional governments for a diplomatic solution to the Iraq mess.