Two months later ...

Two months after giving Iraqis "two more months" to pass oil bill, O'Reilly silent on their failure to do so

Summary: On his radio show on June 20, Bill O'Reilly asserted, "I'm gonna tell you that the big picture is, the Iraqis have two more months. They've got two more months. And if they don't step up and help more than they're helping" on oil legislation and security, "in two months, it's over. Come September and October, we're pulling back, and that's the truth." August 20 marks the end of the two-month period, but O'Reilly is yet to mention the Iraqi government's failure to reach an agreement on oil legislation or his claims about the need for improvements by the Iraqi Security Forces.

On the June 20 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly asserted, "I'm gonna tell you that the big picture is, the Iraqis have two more months. They've got two more months. And if they don't step up and help more than they're helping -- and by help, I mean, they have to pass oil legislation so everybody gets a piece of the oil pie." He added, "Their armed forces have to fight more aggressively and bravely alongside us, and if they don't do it in two months, it's over. Come September and October, we're pulling back, and that's the truth." August 20 marks two months since O'Reilly's comments, yet during the August 20 edition of his radio program, O'Reilly neither mentioned the Iraqi government's failure to reach an agreement on legislation regarding oil revenues nor his claims about the need for improvements by the Iraqi Security Forces within two months.

The White House's July 12 Initial Benchmark Assessment Report stated that the Iraqi government had made "unsatisfactory" progress in "nacting and implementing legislation to ensure the equitable distribution of hydrocarbon resources to the people of Iraq without regard to the sect or ethnicity of recipients, and enacting and implementing legislation to ensure that the energy resources of Iraq benefit Sunni Arabs, Shi'a Arabs, Kurds, and other Iraqi citizens in an equitable manner." It added that "it is too early to tell whether the Government of Iraq will enact and implement legislation to ensure the equitable distribution of hydrocarbon resources to all Iraqis." However, as an August 11 Associated Press article noted, "Iraq's parliament went on vacation for a month after failing either to pass legislation to share the nation's oil wealth or to reconcile differences among the factions."

On the August 11 edition of CNN's This Week at War, Rend al-Rahim, former Iraqi ambassador to the United States, asserted, "hat we're talking about is specific legislation, as Michael Ware said, about the oil, about de-Baathification. There are deep divisions inside the country about the utility of these laws and how to approach those laws. And the divisions are not just about the framing of the laws or the phrasing, but about what kind of Iraq you need to see." Earlier, Ware had said, "Dividing up the oil evenly, that's going to be a hard sell at the best of times." Rahim added, "What are the relationships within Iraq of the central government and the federated regions or the other regions? What is the power-sharing relationship between the different communities of Iraq? Those are what is going to determine these laws and how we pass those laws rather than simple phrasing or articles in those laws."

<snip>

http://mediamatters.org/items/200708200009?f=h_latest