Mid-east Oil Well Tagging
The headline caught my attention: “Iranian forces take over Iraq oil well.” Yikes. Then I read the story…and the real situation is described by U.S. Colonel Peter Newell:
“What happens is, periodically, about every three or four months, the oil ministry guys from Iraq will go … to fix something or do some maintenance. They’ll paint it in Iraqi colours and throw an Iraqi flag up.
“They’ll hang out there for a while, until they get tired, and as soon as they go away, the Iranians come down the hill and paint it Iranian colours and raise an Iranian flag. It happened about three months ago and it will probably happen again.”
For sure, the wells are in disputed territory, which has been a constant point of negotiation between Iran and Iraq. But the actual “actions on the ground” make it seem more akin to a graffiti turf war.
Personally, I think we should panic over this …
Yes, when will Iran learn to respect the territorial boundaries of other nations ? You guys crack me up.
I’d be more sympathetic to Iran if they weren’t slant drilling across the Iraqi border, like Saddam used to do to Kuwait before GW I.
Wait. No I wouldn’t.