Why did the US government chose to depose Hussein? [View All]

[lfairban]

For some reason I have this compulsion to find out the reason or reasons why we got into the war in Iraq and why we are still stuck there. Not the justifications that were given to the public, but the real reasons. The more I think about it the less simple I believe it is.

1) Oil. Keeping gasoline prices low can help insure politicians get re-elected. Geo-political considerations compel the US to control the supply of a vast quantity of low sulfur crude oil.

2) Saddam Hussein's Scud missile attacks on Israel during the Persian Gulf war and his anti-Israel rhetoric.

3) Saudi Arabia's interest in preserving the balance of power in Iraq between the Sunni and Shiite factions. The most recent episode of "Washington Week" clarified this issue.

There is probably a lot more such as the enrichment of Halliburton or military contractors, but I have been contemplating the triangulation of these three aspects as the best explanation of the governments actions since I saw WWR last night.

I don't think there is much argument that the administration is closely aligned with both Israel and Saudi Arabia. Thus their strategy from the beginning was to remove Saddam Hussein (2), gain control of the oil (1), and install a pro-American government that would retain the balance of power (3). After this was accomplished, they planned to move on to the next country, Iran. With child like naivete, they believed that this could be accomplished in a few months.

To oversimplify, we got into this mess to pander to the Israelis, and now we can't leave because a Sunni massacre by the Shiites would upset the Saudis.

Does this make sense or am I way off base here?