It was Iraq from day one.

The focus on the Bush gang was on Iraq from day one. Nothing had more importance than getting at the oil there. Memo of 02-01-01 as the memo notes Iraq was to be at the top of the agenda for the Bush gang. Perhaps it was a case of, "they tried to kill my dad" or one of little Georgie trying to prove to his mommy that he was a brave boy or perhaps C+ Augustus was just trying to outdo his father, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that this gang of incompetents shunted everything aside in order to focus soley on getting the UN to go along and allow the Little Prince to get his war with Iraq. In the end they went in without UN support and the SCWOT suffered as a result.

That oil was the reason cannot be disputed for Iraq, after not being allowed to produce at capacity because of 10+ years of sanctions, was the repository of a very large portion of the easy to get at unrecovered oil in the world. Perhaps this is why Cheney was so protective of his energy policy tete-a-tete with much of the oil industry movers and shakers. Perhaps they were engaged in the planning for the carving out of Iraqi oil production once Saddam was out of the way and the Iraqi people were conquered.

Funny thing happened on the way to empire, the neocon chicken hawks neglected to ask the Iraqi people if they wanted to be subjects of a new American empire. In their hubris, or ignorance (the choice is yours), they neglected to consider the "what-if" scenario of an insurgency even though history is rife with examples of people fighting foreign soldiers exercising control over their country. The lessons of our own revolution were lost on these arrogant bastards.

So the next time a conservative trots out the long line of reasons why we invaded Iraq, remind them of the memo of 02-01-01 and the fact that Iraqi oil reserves are at the same time proven and easily attainable and in that respect are the most desirable of assets in these days leading up to $100/bbl oil.