Why we're in Iraq.

[screembloodymurder]

Willie Nelson was asked why he thinks we attacked Iraq when it was Saudis that pulled off 911. He replied:

Well do you remember the old story about the guy looking for his lost quarter?
When I asked him where he lost it, he said, 'over there'. I said, Why you looking for
it over here if you lost it over there? He said, 'cause the light's better'.


I guess we're in Iraq for the same reason.

[spanone]

1. oil and the military industrial complex......but i love willie

[zorahopkins]

2. Oil And

We're in Iraq for OIL.

And because George W. Bush has "daddy issues".

[yurbud]

3. If my best friend shot my dog and I knew, but blamed my neighbor, beat him up and

stole his lawn mower, then had a beer with my best friend, wouldn't you wonder if I wanted or even asked my best friend to shoot my dog?

I know there's a problem with that analogy. The Bushies think less of us than most people do their dogs.

[screembloodymurder]

5. No problem with that analogy.

If it makes no sense, maybe it's not supposed to.

[zorahopkins]

4. Oil And

We're in Iraq for OIL.

And because George W. Bush has "daddy issues".

[IsItJustMe]

6. I think there are at least four reasons why we are there, and none of them ever had anything to do

with wmd.

Inability to find the real culprit of 9/11, attack Iraq by proxy
American power projection
oil
Industrial Military Complex
Isreal

In that order. The bottom line it all boils down to fear, greed, and power.

[OmahaBlueDog]

7. I think he figured he had a chance to fix history and make a few bucks.

One of the big knocks on Daddy Bush was that he didn't have Schwartzkopf march into Bagdhad after the Iraqui army was essentially destoyed in GW I....and one of the big knocks on the Democrats and Jimmy Carter was that we didn't stand behind the Shah, and (as a result) lost Iran, our only Middle Eastern client state (aside from Israel).

FF a few years. The neo-cons -- the "New American Century" crowd, after getting nowhere with Bill Clinton for 8 years, have a willing customer in Junior Bush. Invade Iraq (quck, easy task), depose Hussein (quick, easy task), build a new capitalist republic (quick, easy task), and bill Iraq for the whole thing (seems a small price for freedom, yes?). Then bring in pro-western oil companies, and have companies like Bechtel and Halliburton sell the Iraquis technology and infrastructure. A low risk, profitable war that will lead to the spread of western values in the Middle East -- what could be better?

I like the Willie Nelson story you tell, but I think this is more like a story from the Sopranos, or GoodFellas. You lose your quarter -- you don't know where. But you see someone from the neighborhood where you lost the quarter. Enter Joe Peschi -- he beats the living Hell out of someone who has no idea where the quarter is, on the theory that someone in the neighborhood will, upon witnessing the beating, now find the quarter and bring it to you "..out of respect."

[RC]

8. Saddam was getting ready to switch his oil from the dollar to the euro.