George Bush nearly pelted with shoes

[Kirkland Laing]

No point flogging a dead horse, Kirkland.

Tell me one single British/US foreign policy move in the Middle East in the last century which wasn't in furtherance of our control over their oil. Or name one single Arab regime other than Syria that we don't currently prop up to some extent.

By prop up, you mean support? Alliance? Well guess what, lots of countries support other countries. But I want to stay focused on the point of my involvement in this part of the thread.

By "in furtherance of" I assume you mean "intended to"? "reason for"?

The issue is whether or not Iraq war is about control of oil. Initially you were the one who said it was. I disagreed. The old knee jerk oil thing I think I called it. You tried to provide evidence that it was the reason, I wasn't the least bit convinced by your "evidence". I even think you took a couple of tries.

But OK. What exactly does the words "control their oil" mean to you in this context?

OK, let's limit this to whether the Iraq war was about oil. I'm telling you it is. There's no other reason for us to be interested in the region otherwise. We have a century of documented history of an Anglo/US effort to control the region and its oil, and at a time when oil has never been more important to the world then countries like Iraq have never been more critical for us to control. Iraq may well have the world's highest oil reserves of any country, but more importantly it's the only country in the world at a time when oil supply is struggling to keep up with demand that can significantly increase its oil output. Iraq is the world's most valuable real estate, economically and strategically speaking. Controlling who it sells its oil to and what currency it sells it in (and to a lesser extent which companies produce the oil) is absolutely critical to the US continuing to remain the world's preeminent power/economy.

It isn't "knee-jerk" at all, after a century of our invading/overthrowing/manipulating Arab governments to control their oil, you're going to have to come up with a good reason other than oil why our latest venture there happened. Iraq contains oil, sand and camels. Sand can be found all around the coastline of the continental United States and in numerous quarries therein. The amount of freight carried by camels in the United States has declined significantly over the last century to the point where the internal combustion engine has almost driven US camel hauliers out of business and camels are now a bear market. That only leaves oil.