Oil is the number one strategic material on the planet.
The entire modern history of the middle east has been dominated by oil.
It was oil that drew the British there at the start of the twentieth century and which led Lord Curzon to claim that the "Allied cause has floated to victory upon a wave of oil" in WW1
The UK fought the Ottoman Empire for control of Iraq - 1914-1918. Interestingly, Lord Curzon, the post war foreign minister, vehemently denied that oil had played any part in the decision to invade. He was later proved to have been lying.
From 1918-1930 the British were engaged in almost continous fighting to hold onto the Iraqi oil fields until the nation was granted a nominal level of independance in 1932.
Britain again siezed the Iraqi oil fields in 1941 to keep them out of German and US hands.
It was the USA's extraction treaty with Saudi Arabia in the immediate post-WW2 period that led State Department Policy Director George Kennan to state that the US had just aquired "the greatest material prize in world history".
It was oil concerns in the 1950s that led to the otherthrow of the Iranian government and installation of the pro-US and authoritarian regime of the Shah.
It was concerns over keeping middle-eastern oil away from the influence of the USSR that formed the basis the "Carter Doctrine" that led directly to the US intervention in the Afghan civil war in the 1970's and '80s.
It was concerns about vast oil wealth falling under the influence of the Iranian Mullahs that prompted the Reagan administration to support Iraq in attacking Iran in 1980.
It was to keep Kuwaiti oil wealth out of the hands of Iraq that Desert Storm was launched in 1991.
In testimony to the senate Armed Services Committee, April 13, 1999, General Anthony C. Zinni, commanding officer of the Central Command, affirmed the importance of the Persian Gulf region, with its huge oil reserves. It is a “vital interest” of “long standing,” he said, and the United States “must have free access to the region’s resources"
Practically the first action of the US government of occupation was to redenominate Iraqi oil sales from the euro to the dollar.
Recent history is replete with examples of democracies invading or otherwise interferring with the running of resource rich countries under bogus pretexts created to assuage public opinion. The US is no exception, in fact it provides some of the best examples.
Almost every post-war US president has followed a security doctrine of preserving, protecting and extending US oil interests in the persian gulf region. Now you tell me why I should suspend my disbelief and imagine that the Bush II regime is any different in the face of a hundred years of historical precedent.
