Ripsnort wrote;
Not to change the subject, but I thought Iraq was about oil? How come we've (USA) yet to reap those benefits of unlimited oil at cheap prices?
Nobody ever said Iraq was about getting cheap oil to the consumer. As Exxon's filings will show, this war sure has been great for the big oil businesses.
It is, was and will continue to be about oil . Right now, it's about oil on the battlefield. If Iran does shut down the Gulf (which they can do for a finite period of time). Iraq's oil will be running the land based assets we deploy against Iran.
Iran is in a position to control the gulf. That would mean no exports from Saudi, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Qatar, Bahrain etc., cutting gross US imports by about 30%. We couldn't run a war and keep the domestic economy running for long without that oil.
Controlling (somewhat) Iraq provides not only a strategic base for operations against Iran and Syria, but also a supply of oil close to the battlefield.
If we can keep the Shia population from blowing it up...
On a side note... I noticed a local gas station chain here increased their prices by 10 cents a gallon in the late morning of 9/11/01. Retail gas prices have never been back to the level they were since.
But it's still not about oil, right?