The economic and political forces that drew the United States into Iraq -- quite different from the reasons the Bush administration gave for the invasion -- remain powerful, exerting a pull that will be hard to resist. Oil, of course, is foremost among them. But also important are the threats and tensions linked to oil: Washington's decades-old rivalry with Iran, the growing dangers posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the fear that the Middle East's simmering conflicts will erupt into a broader, bloodier and far more costly war.

Hard to resist by a politician that's paid to service them! Yeah, oil was foremost among them. Washington's "rivalry" with Iran is about two years, not two decades, old. The "rivalry" began when the Neocons decide to have the US whack Iran. The growing dangers of weapons of mass destruction have just been officially sanctioned by the new Secretary of War and they needn't have been at all! Israel need never have started a nuclear arms race in the region. And the Middle East's simmering conflicts will erupt when the US/Israel Axis decides to "erupt" them.

There is no getting out of the Middle East. Even if we leave now, we'll be back.

As long as we're fools enough to elect these made men and women into our government this absurd statement is probably true.

In fact, given the political shifts that this increasingly unpopular conflict has triggered, it seems quite possible that a Democratic president may be the one compelled to wage the Third Gulf War.

Who is doing the compelling? Israel. Why are we compelled? Because we are allowing ourselves to be ruled by the employees of people who not only do not share our interests but despise us for being such fools that we allow ourselves to be duped, again and again.

The United States's interests in the Middle East date to the post-World War I years, around the time when the British redrew the Middle East map and created nation-states, such as Iraq, cobbled together from disparate Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish pieces. A rising industrial power, the United States could not ignore the promise of oil identified in the Persian Gulf in the 1920s. With the drilling contracts awarded to Standard Oil of California and Texaco in 1933 and 1936, respectively, the United States in effect committed itself to an ever growing involvement in (and dependence on) this region.

Standard Oil and Texaco are not the United States and the interests of the United States are not the interests of Standard Oil, aka Exxon-Mobil, and Texaco. As long as we sit back and let these fools write things like this, continue to create "facts in our minds", yes we'll be stupid enought to buy the rest of this ridiculous argument as well.

Immediately after the war, the Russians refused to leave Iran as they had promised at the Yalta Conference in 1945; it took action by the U.N. Security Council to force their withdrawal. This ultimately led the United States to seek a reliable ally in Tehran, in turn leading presidents from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Jimmy Carter to embrace the shah.

There is zero reason for me to accept that the arrogance and greed of Dulles in overthrowing the elected President of Iran and installing the "Shah" in power was due to anything other than the arrogance and greed of John Foster Dulles and that of his cronies.

At the same time, the situation in the region was immeasurably complicated by the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and President Harry S. Truman's support for the new entity. This new U.S.-Israeli bond created an instant tension with the countries upon which the United States depended for oil, thus defining a balancing act that to this day remains the trickiest in U.S. foreign policy.

And just as long as our policy toward the Middle East is based upon defending Israeli injustice we will have "tension" that is "trickiest" there. This policy has nothing to do with the interests of the people of the United States and everything to do with the interests of the people whose outsourced employees pose as our political class.

Over time, this picture grew even more complex, as much the result of the United States' victories as its fumbles and defeats... Sadly, the invasion of Iraq in this most recent Gulf war has only exacerbated these situations.

Yes. Basing your foreign policy on an injustice means that you get everything wrong from there on out.

What plausible scenarios could draw even a war-weary United States back into the Middle East, into a Gulf War III?

Clearly Israel's desire to have its stooges in our government bomb Iran is among those at the top of the list. But Israel's requirement that the United States continue to fund and support its elimination of the Palestinian nation is right up there too.

Or the reactions to the US/Israeli actions might bring it about.

Or if none of that does it, another terrorist attack on the United States itself may have to be allowed to go forward.

After the U.S. election of 1968 confirmed the public's desire to withdraw from Vietnam, the war dragged on for seven more years and claimed as many lives as it had during the period of escalation. The distinction, however, is that even leaving Vietnam probably will prove much simpler than leaving Iraq or the surrounding region.

The South Vietnamese government did not have anything approaching the machine that Israel has at its disposal to frustrate the will of the American people.

While a long-term U.S. military presence in the region may further stoke anti-American passions, it may also make good and prudent strategic sense.

American troops will be right there to die for Israel itself when they do precipitate the next war.

The United States must also restore its own hollowed-out military and determine how a war such as the one in Iraq could ever have stretched U.S. forces so thin.

Israel is furious that the US Wehrmacht has failed so badly in Iraq, and demands that we pull up our socks and put the Wehrmacht back together... and Mach Schnell!

The United States must contain the complex threats it faces in the region, and at the same time try to limit our vital interests there. On the first score, Hezbollah and Hamas must know that the United States is present and stands ready to take action. Iran must know that it will not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, period. Moderates in the region must know that we will stand by them, with economic aid and political support, helping to restore U.S. moral authority in the Middle East. And everyone must know that an attack against Israel will always be considered an attack against America.

If it comes to a choice between using the American Wehrmacht for Israels aims...

On the second score, we must embark on the long-term but critical task of reducing our energy dependence on the Middle East. No strategy in any Gulf war could produce more lasting change in the region than a prolonged fall in oil prices. The only dependable formula for ultimate victory in the Gulf wars will come through innovation and conservation right here at home.

or big Oil's.... well-l-l.

Israel must come first.

No.

The United States must come first. We must turn these monstrous Neocons out now.


Finally, this was never 'just about Oil', tho that was a major part, as a commenter over at huffy post wrote, "It was about one man's ambition to take down a dictator and become the hero his father never was.

It was about a group of men who want America to make war on the middle east and dominate it in the name of Israel.

It was about turning around the legacy of Vietnam by celebrating a successful "liberation" of a middle eastern country which would then turn around and provide us a massive supply of oil.

Iraq was and is the perfect storm of avarice, ambition, corruption, greed and naked power lust.

One man wanted to do what his father couldn't, hundreds and then thousands of others piled on with their own ambitions of conquest and a new American Empire. It was never about one single thing." If you want to throw up, check out those "laws" that Bremer uni-laterally implemented on behalf of the American corporations. It wasn't just oil, it was agribusiness, financials, and water rights and a host of others, too. Totally screwing the Iraqis. Much like they have screwed the American people here at home.