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A side reason, is that Mideast oil is the cheapest to produce. Gain influence/control over this production and use it to moderate/influence the cost of oil overall. Much of the other sources of oil are more expensive to produce. Who would you rather have this "influence"? Hmmm

That's a DU talking point.

It is about oil, but not the way you are trying to make it out to be. It is about getting the Arabs, and yes, especially the Saudi's to turn off the spigot of oil money they have been feeding the terrorists.

Swatting mosquitos doesn't do anything if there is a nice sticky swamp for them to breed in. You have to drain the swamp. That is what is happening.

Khadaffy is out of the terrorism and WMD business, Syria is behaving itself, Saudi Arabia has recently clamped down on the "charities" that were pumping money to the Islamonazis and have suspended more than 900 prayer leaders who were talking the jihadi talk too much.

And all of this happened because the fat Arabs in their oil-bought palaces realized that Bush is not Clinton and is not going to just wring his hands, whimper when look the other way when the pampered princes of Arabia dabble in terrorism like an amusing hobby.

The WMD claim may have been overplayed. I don't know. Certainly it wasn't just Bush who thought they had them, as the numerous quotes from Clinton and his cronies -- during their administration -- have made perfectly clear.

Controlling the oil? Moderating the prices? Why bother? Who would the Saudi's sell it to if not us? They can't drink the stuff or use it themselves. The war has been and will be hugely expensive in terms of dollars, manpower, material and, of course, casualties. But the reason for it has been to destroy the terrorists and safeguard the American people.

Has it worked perfectly? Hell no! But what ever does? Is there more work to be done? Hell Yes! Iran is going to have to be dealt with sooner or later. But is the policy working? I think so. I think the benefits are real and tangible and we need to stay the course on it.

I strongly resent your insinuation that this is an oil grab in disguise.

Iraq has the second highest reserves (maybe).

We don't want the Chinese to gain future influence there for several reasons.

If we were really concerned with controlling OPEC, we would maximize our own reserves by opening up the ANWR. This is the real reason that the Democrats are fighting drilling in the ANWR, the Democrats do not want to see cheap oil, they don't want to a strong capitalistic economy. The Democrats want a dependent, fascist economy fully regulasted by the gov't.