"With no Iraq oil laws in place we are dividing the spoils virtually unilaterally." - Crap, according to the AP story the Companies involved do not even get a percentage of the the production they are paid a fee. The AP Story coverage by and large is also reflected by the BBC's reporting of it which also mentions companies from 35 countries "bidding" for the work.

What Saddam Hussein was responsible for was for over production combined with a chronic lack of maintenance and total disregard for the health of the reservoirs from which he was extracting the oil. But there again he needed the money badly to pay for his wars, the oil was sold at ridiculous discount to the Russians, the French and the Chinese (Who was it that was blocking or threatening to block UN SC Resolutions again - Oh Yes Russia, France and China - How odd).

Now then Donuel and all the "America only did it to steal Iraq's Oil Brigade", western oil companies are extremely good at marginal field development and what they call "down-hole-maintenance", there have been a number of offshore fields in the North Sea that having been abandoned by their original operators have been re-opened by Companies who have developed the technology to coax more of the oil from supposedly depleted reservoirs. That is why Iraq needs western expertise, the Russians know this well enough, in the period after the collapse of the Soviet Empire their oil and gas industry needed exactly the same intervention.

Now tell us all again Donuel, exactly how does one go about stealing another nations oil reserves? Buckets during hours of darkness?