The naivete of Washington’s chosen puppets in Baghdad is touching, just touching.

The Iraqi minister for oil has slammed President Bush’s claim that the recent decision by Saudi Arabia to increase oil production will help lower the price of crude oil.

This from Bloomberg:

The oil market is “well supplied,” and prices are being driven by “speculative flows” and not supply and demand, [the Iraqi oil minister] said today in an interview in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, at the annual World Economic Forum.

When a commodity or stock breaks out to new highs, as oil has done again this week, it’s extremely unwise to go short, as many are suggesting. I have no doubt, of course, that now I’ve said that in print, it will mark the top of the market.

In the energy market Friday, crude for June delivery shot higher after three straight days of declines, rising to $116.32/barrel, up $3.80. June reformulated gasoline gained 8.82 cents, to $2.9664/gallon.

We’ve all heard the story. Most of the world’s major oil deposits have already been discovered. The low-hanging fruit has been picked. The remaining oil supplies are tough to get at – and expensive to recover.

On the fifth anniversary of the declaration of “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq, Iran has taken the same fateful financial step that by some accounts sealed the fate of Saddam Hussein.