Iraq, As I Understand It

[ThomWV]

Let's see if I got this right:

Iraq, as a geographical entity, holds the second largest oil reserves in the world but they were being underutilized and poorly maintained by a petty dictator. The petty dictator (unlike others who sit on top of large oil reserves) would not play ball with the US owned international oil companies and had to go.

The US invades Iraq in order to remove the petty dictator. No one really cares about the country or its people. The oil resources are secured to the extent possible and are not harmed in any significant way. Iraq will be allowed to form any sort of Government it likes as long as there are guarantees of US control over the oil that flows from under its ground. We really don't care who gets the money because one way or another it flows to our company's hands.

In the meantime there is a great power struggle going on inside Iraq. We have soldiers there but they are simply targets of opportunity or by-standers to the power struggle that goes on inside the country. Some claim this is a civil war but of course it is not. In order to be a civil war there must be an existing Government to rally against. Iraq has no such Government. It will have one, and maybe soon, but not today. Then there can be a civil war. One thing is clear to whomever comes out on top in Iraq - the US will intervene and toss you to the buzzards if you don't play on our side with the oil. We've already demonstrated that. The same message should be clear to the rest of the petty tyrants sitting on top of oil wealth as well. Play our oil game (uninterupted supply to the US at a rate set by our refindery owners) and you get to stay very wealthy. Think of Sadam every time you consider straying.

Oh, Democracy? Freedom? Torture rooms? WMD? What have they got to do with anything?