[Ben Ficklin]

The policy began under Bush and has continued under Obama

The goal was/is to maintain the Iraq nation and not allow partitioning into southern shia, western sunni, and northern kurd because that partitions the oil.

If the oil gets partitioned, there will be continuous war over the oil.

So the US insisted and it was written into the Iraq constitution that the oil proceeds would be shared and there is a formula for that.

The Kurdish oil had to be shipped south thru the hands of the central govt who would collect the proceeds an disburse it in accordance with the constitution.

But eventually, the pipeline from Kurdish Iraq thru Turkey to the Med was built and now the kurds can get the oil onto the world market, bypassing the central govt, and keeping all the proceeds.

The Sunni Iraqis have had a lot of complaints about Maliki's shia central govt. But now that the Kurdish oil is bypassing, they are more than willing to align themselves ISIS.

[MeshugeMikey]

Thank you.

[Vigilanteman]

When Bush was POTUS it made some sense, because there was no ISIS in control of that part of Iraq.

As usual, BO hides behind the "Bush's fault" excuse when it suits him and ignores precedent when it does not.

[vette6387]

“If the oil gets partitioned, there will be continuous war over the oil.”

Well, the war has started despite the “Bush Policy.”