Just one simple question

[Maggie_May]

Why are we still in Iraq? How many times did the mission change? What truly is our mission? I know the mission was to rid Iraq of Saddam and WMD. When did the mission change and did Bush ever admit to the change in mission?

[EVDebs]

1. Document reveals Nixon plan to seize Arab oil fields

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/01/02/MNG8G427D61.DTL

This was on the DOD's "to do" list from 1973. They swapped 'Saudi Arabia' for 'Iraq'

[rurallib]

2. When will one reporter dare ask Bush "Will your children go?"

Just once. I really want to see how he would answer that.

[Amonester]

3. 1. Oil (est. 1 trillion barrels of premium quality light crude).

2. MIC permanent bases (ready to attack Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia if they ever "opt out" of the BFEE).
3. US Embassy (the "biggest target for future rebellions to strike at" ever built on this planet).
4. The AWOL CinC's legacy...

[immoderate]

7. Embassy built by no-bid contractors?

If it's like our other Iraq construction, it will be uninhabitable.

--IMM

[valerief]

4. Oil over there so we don't have to do oil over here. Oh, yeah, and they're emptying out

whatever is left in the Treasury.

[Skittles]

5. why do you hate America, Maggie?

please do the repukes a big favor and stick your head in the sand

[2rth2pwr]

6. That's 4 questions. nt

[Kelly Rupert]

8. Actual answers to your questions.

1. To both secure a large forward power projection base in the Middle East, and to establish a free-trading democratic society, which combined would allow America to (by combination of economic and military force) remake the Middle East in its image. The economic potential of Mideast oil reserves is one reason. It is not the only.

2. Once. The mission shifted from "rebuilding while suppressing the insurrection" to "keeping a lid on the clusterfuck."

3. See #1. For all the PNAC/neocon-phobia around here, you'd think more people would actually read what they write. We're blessed with villains who actually tell us what they intend to do and how they intend to do it.

4. That was not the mission. That was the My First Foreign Policy Journal version of the mission.

5. It happened slowly. I would say the first wake-up call was the al-Sadr rebellion, which told America rather firmly that the pathetic level of security in Iraq had degenerated to the point where the Shi'ites had no faith in the ability of America to protect them. If you want a "this is when" moment, it would be the bombing of the Golden Mosque.

6. Sort of.

[question everything]

9. Apparently the mission was always

to just set presence there, just like Korea, or even in Europe.

I wish that he stated that in the beginning, instead of changing the reasons at every turn. Then, perhaps, we could have had a rational discussion and if this reason was found sound, we could have included a real multi national force without all the killing