The Real Meat

On NPR this morning Ari Shapiro gushes with Peter Zeihan - O'Reily endorsed "analyst" from the rightist Stratfor company (Stratfor has a place of honor on the RightBias news site).

As Porter mentioned in the Open Thread below, the discussion had all the overtones of soft porn. Let's just say that Ari and Peter were very stimulated by the whole scenario of our oil - that happens to be in Iraq - finally coming back to its rightful owners after so many years:

Shapiro: "Iraq's Oil Ministry has opened its legs the door to five western oil companies. They haven't had access to Iraq for 36 years. "

Zeihan: "...the real meat in Iraq's industry is going to come later."

Ari does get all in a bunch when Zeihan mentions that this first round of deals doesn't just give the whole shop away to the "western" oil companies. He practically shrieks, "The production is not something you own! Does that mean that the oil companies are not going to profit significantly from this?"

Zeihan reassures Shapiro (and all us listeners) "Well, they'll make a profit..."

Well, thank God. I mean seriously, if this war can't guarantee the poor, excluded "western" oil companies making a profit, then I want my half a trillion dollars back!