Nostrodamus, since you asked, although to do the subject justice it would take a book. There is an oil component, but more directly our aim was to put the Iranians back in their box. They are the world sponsors of terror, and have been since Jimmy Carter pulled the rug out from under the Shah. Geopolitically, we couldn’t work against them from anywhere else. Saudi Arabia was and is problematic. If the Iranians ultimately gained control of Iraq, they’d have half the world’s oil supply. We couldn’t let that happen. With a democracy planted on their doorstep, that’s where they have to keep their eye, and that is why we’re in this for the long haul. Our venture in Iraq is the price of doing business, and staying in business. Bailing out homeowners, not so much.
