President bush, his secretary of state and his secretary of Defense have all recently made it resoundingly clear that the Administration has no intention of giving up on our mission to democratize Iraq. The Administration, however, should introduce changes that would make this goal more realizable. Oil. For starters, U.S. officials should urgently push the Iraqi government to enact something similar to the so-called Alaska model for Iraq's oil riches. Control of the country's oil—only Saudi Arabia and Iran have reserves greater than Iraq's—is an enormous bone of contention between the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites. Instituting an Alaska model would immediately ameliorate lethal tensions over control.
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