[with what army?]
Remember how fast we got the "Northern Alliance" on our side? Enough said.
[with what money?]
Does anyone honestly believe that one of the best business deals ever was NOT the long term good will of the Iraqi people who've made major oil deals with US companies?
Do you think only the Iraqis will be profiting from their oil for the next generation?
American conservatives have to go along with the idea that we did not liberate Iraq for profit. But, geopolitically speaking, come on!
Reasons for an Iran Revolution with provocation from Saudis or Israelis or Iraqis or Whomever that gives the USA an excuse to openly help the revolutonaries:
1) Because Iran is allied with Al Qaeda and Hezbollah and too many in the Saudi leadership that they cannot be trusted with nukes at all...and bombing would not be an option because the most important nuke facilities are located under civilian population centers. We will have no choice but to have *somebody's* ground troops take Tehran neighborhood by neighborhood.
2) We need to stop Iranian support for the Iraqi insurgency (the killing of US soldiers is an act of war). Failure to do so will mean we will eventually (inevitably) lose Iraq to an anti-American Shiite dictatorship...because a nuclear powered Iran will be able to assassinate pro-American Iraqis at will.
3) We need to stop the flow of Iranian oil billions into the hands of our enemies. Syria would be forced to change if the Iranian oil money wasn't keeping its dysfunctional regime alive.
4) It would be nice to get Iranian oil billions flowing into American corporations.
5) This would force the Saudis into line. We won't need them anymore.
6) It would be nice to find out that there are no hidden nukes in US or European cities. If one does go off, it will probably have a half mile of damage and its use would discredit the world's left wing more than Bush.
7) The only way to discredit the left wing and make Iraqi Freedom as historically significant as the fall of the Berlin Wall is to have another huge country in the Middle East burst into a pro-American democratic frenzy. Iran is the only place for that because Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon will only democratize in a grudging and outwardly anti-American way.
Which major oil companies?
With the taxpayer on the line for $250 Billion plus interest, just how much will the "major oil companies" be paying of that debt?
Do you think only the Iraqis will be profiting from their oil for the next generation?
No, of course not. There are a number of "foreign investors" who stand to create generational wealth by controlling a share of the profits from the iraqi oil fields. Perhaps WE THE PEOPLE should be paid back OUR investment first.