dksuddeth: there has actually been very little oil pumped out of Iraq at this point, it hasn't been stable enough to allow for exploitation... whether the US invaded for oil or not.
stevo: I don't support the theory that 9/11 was perpetrated by the US government. I believe they used the fear of future attacks as a way to get what they wanted (i.e. invade Iraq). I don't think there is anyway to argue against that. It was just smart PR.
My belief is that this war was being planned well in advance of Bush winning the election. That it was on the agenda for Cheney and Rumsfeld from day one of their taking office.
This map of the Iraqi oil fields (
http://www.judicialwatch.org/IraqOilMap.pdf) was being passed around in closed meetings between Cheney and the heads of the US oil industry. At the same time, they were discussing the fact that sanctions against Iraq were about to be dropped. Corporations from around the world had tendered bids to exploit the various fields. This task force also had a list of these bids (
http://www.judicialwatch.org/IraqOilGasProj.pdf). There were no US companies on that list because the US would not allow it. The US oil industry was about to be shut out of the biggest untapped reserve of "easy oil" (i.e. easy to access) in the world.
One of the first things that the US did, after attacking Iraq, was declare all of those negotiated deals, null and void.
The US has had a long history of supporting the US oil industry. Iraq represents one of the greatest untapped reserves. To serve this up to Big Oil, makes strategic sense.
1) You get rid of a despot.
2) You might get a stable democracy in Iraq
3) You get oil reserves under the control of US corporations (i.e. oil and profit flow the the US)
4) Your friends in the oil industry are greatful for the additional income (this is remembered when you are out of office)
The think tank, New American Century, lays most of this out in detail (except for the profit to your friends, that just follows) in the missives found on their website.
I don't know why people are resistant to this, it makes perfect strageic sense when looked at it from the NAC point of view.