20 Gallons

In the time it takes to read this short sentence, another 20 gallons of crude oil will have escaped from the wrecked Deepwater Horizon well into the Gulf of Mexico.

SOFA

RickB at Ten Percent has an astute commentary on the agreement between Iraq and the US to remove US forces from that country. I was struck by yesterday's New York Times headline: "Iraq Approves Deal Charting End of U.S. Role" and how the reader had to search really deep in the article about the details. Of course, the head line should have read: "Iraq Approves Deal Charting End of U.S. Occupation," but as a commenter on Rick's piece notes,

I don’t know if you have seen the Justice for Iraq blog [I add the link] that has something by Sami Ramadani who says SOFA is an illusion and the American establishment want to stay in Iraq for as long as the oil is there and it is a good political vantage point. SOFA is about getting the UN out of the way and the US are arguing for a military presence.