Privatizing Iraq

The BBC reports on a series of reforms planned for Iraq that would make Milton Friedman giddy as a schoolgirl. Oil is left out of the privatization and liberalization scheme, apparently on the grounds that U.S. firms snapping up oilfields might appear to confirm the belief that the war was "all about the oil." Probably that's necessary right now, though it's worth bearing in mind that state ownership of oil has helped to prop up plenty of regional despots.