Cluck, cluck, cluck......Boom!

The NYTimes has two oddly juxtaposed articles on it's front page right now. In the first, the headlining article, Bush came out of his strategy meeting today talking about increasing oil production as the method of getting the country on the right track.

"The government ought to use the oil as a way to unite the country," Mr. Bush told reporters.... Iraq, he said, "ought to think about having a tangible fund for the people so the people have faith in the central government."

So, we'll win the hearts and minds and stabilize the country by restarting the economy. Actually, a pretty reasonable element of any plan for Iraq (although it's not clear how this new plan differs from the Strategy for Victory in November,) but the irony hit me when looking at the other Iraq story on the front page,

This once-quiet city of riverside promenades was among the most receptive to the American invasion. Now, three years later, it is being pulled apart by Shiite political parties that want to control the region and its biggest prize, oil. But in today's Iraq, politics and power flow from the guns of militias, and negotiating has been a bloody process.

So, the plan is to regain security and stability through oil production, but they can't increase oil production because of problems with security and stability.

It's the classic problem, "Which came first, the chicken or the exploding egg?"