We wouldn't let there be an election until the likely outcome wasn't "the last vote" (as the Frummage had it) but our current benchmarks containing high expectations for PM al Maliki suggest there has always been a light at the end of the Bush tunnel.

112 billion barrels in reserves have been touted as the people's oil, but a trip to the encyclopedia suggests otherwise. "In the early 1970s, Saddam spearheaded Iraq's nationalization of the Western-owned Iraq Petroleum Company, which had long held a monopoly on the country's oil."

Imagine that. And he was only the vice president at the time. Small world!

Have you never wondered why we rushed the purple-fingered constitutional convention process to the point where the necessity for further work is included? The part that was settled was the transfer, up to a point, of sovereignty. Because, as is suggested among many bulleted points by an Iraqi activist named Munir Chalabi, in an article titled What is holding up the delivery of the long-awaited Iraqi oil law,? anything negotiated by the previous regime, the provisional authority of Bremer, could later have been nullified by international law.

He writes: "The latest Oil poll, which was carried out in June and July 2007 by KA Research, has shown that the Iraqis oppose plans to open the country's oil fields to foreign investment by a factor of two to one (63% oppose to 31% for)."

Recalling how Central and South American citizens benefited from United Fruit's exploitation of the people's fruit, with CIA and Marine assistance when required, Bush's concern over the Iraqi people's oil seems zero percent sincere and 100 percent doublethink.

In one recent draft of the oil law, the Iraq National Oil Co. would be reformed as an Iraqi company. Contracts entered into by Saddam's government wouldn't necessarily be valid anymore. The most cynical view says that countries which vocally objected to our little Iraq adventure from the outset will be cut out of consideration.

Also, this company will be awarded a lot of the scrap iron which passes for oil fields in current operation, while new operations will be launched by the highest bidders in what may prove to be one of the world's last oil rushes. Only a third of the reserves are being worked right now.

I can't help but think that there is a corporate cabal which can't wait to get back its (er, the Iraqi people's) oil. My strongest evidence is the plethora of reasons for continuing our occupation.

If we've learned anything about Bush and his crew, it's that whatever you're being told is either unprovable, conceited or tautological. The truth is usually to be found wherever something is said to be absolutely not so.

This is not a war for oil.

QED.

Says Munir Chalabi, "The Bush administration wants this law to be passed as soon as possible, whatever the cost to the Iraqi people."

You wonder if there are any visionaries left in Iraq. Shining beacons on a hill. Chalabi was a participant in an interesting event in March, 2005. The teach-in by Iraq Occupation Focus should make one wistful for our last "know when to fold 'em" moment.

What is possible if your infrastructure isn't obligated to the IMF and your sovereignty and place in the world aren't mucked about with by the WTO and assorted foreign intelligence agencies? That would be the outcome of a truly private Iraq oil company. Jobs would trickle down; oh it would be great!

Or has Frank Luntz already converted this potential visionary into the quintessential binLadenist.

There's been a deliberate stall domestically since the fall elections. We had the wait for a commission to ignore, the countdown to the decision to slog ahead anyway, the wait for full deployment to start the clock, the infuriating postponing of any and all meaningful discussions until the Crocker Petraeus event, and it all makes you wonder what is meant by this stepping up to the plate by Iraqi politicians? I've said it before. It's their damn country now.

Could it be that the prolongation of a narrative involving waiting, with its continuing sacrifice of civilians and troops, is accompanied by some private bated breath?

We'll see if right after these oil contracts are finally negotiated, the troops aren't yanked without even much thought of force protection or regional instabilities. Once that internationally recognized scrip is duly notarized by some semblance of a sovereign entity, even if it takes well into the next Republican administration, the natives can go ahead and have their little bloodbath.

Their eventual winner gets everything within the limits of the threat of a US return if the contracts are not honored, which will seal the fate of burgeoning democracy and all our other pretenses for preemptive warmaking and empire-like (small "e" - no heavy breathing) occupation.

My crystal ball is often wrong, but right now it's telling me that when the truth is found, even Senators McCain and Lieberman will be duty bound to admit it. It's just a gut feeling, like the one which says none of the current crop of candidates could be counted on by Dick Cheney and Co. to keep up the current pretense at the expense of the troops and, if necessary, their honor.

Why not seek out a veteran of Tennessee politics? They've got some real corkers over there. ("Harold, call me.")

The Republicans' supposed dissatisfaction and the need to champion a more Reagan-like, electable offering hardly makes sense. Then again, I'm no fair judge of Republicans. There's one of about every kind of Republican already running; this can't be about what is being made of it.

My gut says 2008 is about finally settling this 35 year old score as well as protecting eight year old secrets. If Thompson declares his candidacy (likely), my money is on Saturday Night Live parodying 1992's one hit wonder, "Too Sexy" by R.S.F. with Run Said Fred singing "Who's so greedy for the power, greedy for power, so greedy it hurts?" 

If he's faring poorly as the primaries draw close, or gets a tad above his raisin', expect him to sink faster than a senator with a black baby.

If he has said all the right things so far, then it could be said that he has kissed the don's ring. Expect both his entry and a rapid deployment of his most notable talent.

We should be reminded that Wayne Slater, Molly Ivins and others in the know tried to tell us how many Dubbya facts were fictions but, with the aid of a relentless grinding spin, you can sell almost anything.

Fred Thompson. He's like George W. Bush. Same freedom and security, but with only half the death toll.