Who do think they they're fooling? The ONLY reason we are in Iraq is for control of the oil.

[BigBearJohn]

Does anyone truly believe that the GOP
gives two shits about the Iraq people,
their "Democracy" or any Mid East population?

If they had no oil, we would not be there.
There are many more noble causes for us
to pursue. That's for sure.

[Deep13]

1. Well, there's the graft, too.

Can't overlook the Halliburton etc. contracts.

[madokie]

2. but its all about the oil, the rest is secondary

[Deep13]

3. And weaking Federal power through bankruptcy.

[FormerDittoHead]

4. It's a game to them...

They throw that stuff out just to win the 'round'.

"If it was about oil then where's the oil? We're not getting oil from Iraq!..."

"Conservative" ideology is a lie. The core of being a "conservative" is to be a liar.

[catmandu57]

5. If N Korea had oil

We'de be in there in a heartbeat. Of course it's always been about the oil, control of a vital resource, especially keeping it off the market.

[pampango]

12. Someone should have told the Great Kim that he doesn't have oil.

He can relax.

But we invaded to keep the oil off the market? I thought we went to extra trouble to make sure the oil wells were not damaged in the invasion and it was the "bad guys" who were blowing up the pipelines and transit facilities. I get confused at times as to whether we want their oil to insure endless supplies of cheap oil for our economy and consumers or we want their oil off the market and Saddam refused to stop selling it. Am I the victim of MSM spin?

[catmandu57]

14. The less oil on the market

The higher the price, these people are in bed with the Saudis, the Saudismake the world think they'rer their friend by pumping more oil, if the iraqi oil were to come onto the market there would be an overnight glut, driving the price down.
It's in the sauds interest and the rest of these oily bastards to keep the price high, and also to control the resource when the Saudi oil finally dried up I dare say the plan was to open the spicket on the iraqi oil at double or triple the price.
Things haven't quite worked out that way though.

[pampango]

17. Except the Saudis worry that if the price gets too high, Iran

benefits, since Iran's oil cost more to get to market and it has a much larger population to keep happy. The Saudi population is quite small and the country already has more money than they know what to do with.

So the plan was to keep Iraqi oil as a backup for when Saudi oil runs out? That's what I call a long term plan for a region of the world where things change at a feverish pace. Guess you can't accuse Bush of not being a long term planner.
;)

[B Calm]

6. My logic and common sense told me in the first few days into the war

that it wasn't about WMD's. It should have been clear to the brainwashed cons that there weren’t any weapons of mass destruction. What is the reason for having WMD’s in the first place, if you’re not going to use them against an invading army? You would have thought that should have been a wake up call to the willfully ignorant republicans, but no instead they chose to believe even a more ridiculous argument that Saddam moved them. Why would, he had moved them? Was he saving them for a rainy day? How stupid do republicans have to be to continue to believe this filthy administrations’ crap?

Briefly, we went to war with Iraq because an influential group of Neo-Cons convinced George W. Bush that it was in America's best interests to conquer Iraq as a first step toward dominating the oil-producing nations in the Middle East and eventually the world. They also wanted to eliminate Iraq as a threat to Israel.

[Marr]

7. You don't steal an election to spread democracy.

The word "democracy", as used by our government, is really a code word for "US controlled" or "friendly to US corporate interests". That's almost always the direct opposite of *actual* democracy, but it's only one more Orwellian phrase to add to the pile.

[TwilightGardener]

8. It's the 800-lb Gorilla in the room. Congress knows it, most Americans

suspect it, no one has the balls to confront it directly.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. The Middle-East would be an ignored backwater if it wasn't cursed with oil.

It would promote the same sense of urgency as most of Africa does now.

And, AIPAC and they're clones would have about the same lobbying power as "The Society to Save Bedbugs".

[KansDem]

10. Watched "Syriana" this past weekend...

Syriana

A little hard to follow; had to watch it twice. But it rather nicely sums up the hows and whys of our involvement in the Middle East.

[gravity]

11. Its about influence and power

Oil is part of it, but its suppose to allow the US to have a permement presence is the middle east to use our power to influence other nations in the region.

[genie_weenie]

13. Israel is also a factor

We would be there (admittedly in less strength) for it's defense.

[KG]

15. the US- gleefully overthrowing democratically elected gov'ts since 1952!

one of the great myths about amerika - the spreading of 'liberty' and 'democracy' when in fact it has ruthlessly stomped out freedom movements worldwide, but esp. in central america, in order to protect multi-national corporate intrests.

[Cobalt Violet]

16. Oil and to let Bush's friends loot the US treasury.

The taken everything.