The US invaded Iraq primarily for their oil

1) The Quote in question came from this report, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info... (I dont know where it is but its buried in there somewhere) The report was authored by the "Report of an Independent Task Force Sponsored by the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University and the Council on Foreign Relations, it was not a quote by Bush like the Pro says. Also the policy focuses almost entirely on the energy crisis the US faces now and in the near future so if Bush's cabinet agreed to it they were agreeing that America's long term energy problem must be dealt with, it is not any kind of sponsorship of a secret oil-driven invasion of Iraq like the Pro claims. As for the oil map: http://www.wnd.com... Oil fields in Iraq were closed off to contractors as part of the sanctions by the UN. Now that Iraq though was under a new democratic government the UN sanctions were lifted and now contractors were open to drill for Iraqi Oil. This isnt a conspiracy this is a matter of the UN allowing oil contractors to move into a country to drill for oil because before they banned such contractors because the taxes that Iraq would have placed on these drillers would have funded Saddam's rule. Saddam was overthrown though, so the oil fields could be exploited to the benefit of the Iraqi people and not Saddam's regime, contractors were invited in, end of story. There were reasons prior to invading Iraq before 9/11, have you forgotten the first Gulf War? If bush thought the job wasnt finished then thats his own opinion but like I said it was never in any of Bush's campaigns that he openly advocated for an invasion of Iraq. The minute he took office the number one foreign issue he concerned himself with was the Eastern European Missile Shield. http://usforeignpolicy.about.com... You know the saying about how "everything changed after 9/11", well after 9/11 Bush's foreign policy changed from a missile shield against Russian aggression to the global fight against terrorism. An invasion of Iraq was not his top priority like the Pro claims. As for the last argument, do you have any actual proof to suggest this happened or is this buried in some other document somewhere on the internet? 2) ? 3) ? 4) This alleged oil exchange quote was suggested by one of Bush's lowly advisers to another one of Bush's lowly advisers, It is never stated that Bush was told about this possible (not proven) tactic nor can it be proven that Bush actually planned on using this (again alleged) tactic. 5) A) Oh Yes Egypt, 2003 controlled by the psychotic Dictator Hosni Mubarak... I wonder why one dictator who was close friends to another even more psychotic dictator in Iraq would want to make sure Saddam stays in power.... B) "If they had given Hussein the opportunity to cooperate and he messed it up, we would have had more support" Time was not something the US had. Following 9/11 everyone was losing their minds about where the next attack might come from. Of the three countries that came up (Iraq, Iran, North Korea) Iraq was seen as the largest threat and no American politician wanted to side with the dictator who was rumored to have weapons of mass destruction in his arsenal by arguing that "if we just give them a little more time things will work out". America was scared following 9/11 about who might attack us next, Iraq was seen as a very legitimate threat, we made a gut call to try to remove Saddam from power before we could be attacked, and thats how it happened... C) I already argued this, If we paid off Saddam another dictator would just come to power. Are you reading my arguments or did you just pretend they didnt exist. D) In the two years following 9/11, America went into some deep thinking about just how vulnerable they were and who their largest threats to security were. After 9/11 we learned wars would not always be fought between countries, but that they could be fought against groups of armed men (terrorists) whose goal in life was to kill as many of us as possible. From 2001 to 2003 many pieces of evidence came out that hinted Iraq may be our next attackers. 1) Link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, http://en.wikipedia.org... 2) July 5th 2002, Iraq rejects yet another UN resolution 3) Aug of 2002, a report comes out about a Chinese sale of long range rocket fuel to Iraq 4) Aug 19 2002, UN implores Iraq to allow weapons inspectors back into the country 5) Sep 22, 2002 A British intelligence report suggests that Iraq has restarted its nuclear and chemical weapons programs 6) Nov 8, 2002 UN resolution 1441 creates the 17th UN request for Iraq to disarm 7) Dec 9, 2002 UNMOVIC chairman Hans Blix claims the reports from those inspectors ""is not enough to create confidence that Iraq has abandoned its WMD efforts." 8) Jan 2003, A statement released to various newspapers and signed by the leaders of Britain, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, Denmark and the Czech Republic say that Saddam is a "clear threat to world security," and urges Europe to unite with the United States to ensure that the Iraqi government is disarmed. 9) Jan 2003, UN reports harassment of weapons inspectors and inability to interview Iraqi scientists 10) Feb 13, 2003, UN finds Iraqi missiles that violated the latest UN resolution in Iraq Between 9/11/03 and the invasion of Iraq on 3/14/03 Iraq posed a very dangerous and increasing threat to US security 6) Are you actually suggesting that Cheney used Bush as a puppet to invade Iraq for his own wealth? 7) Oil is drilled in Iraq ,the companies that drill he oil send it to refineries to refine it into gas. the gas is then bought by energy companies around the globe for sale to consumers. The only way a government profits from this is by taxing the oil drillers and refiners. The drilling and refining companies in Iraq are taxed by the Iraqi government, they own the wealth of their own oil. Its as simple as that. http://en.wikipedia.org... http://in.reuters.com... 8) As for my sources that Con is attacking, 1 - That source was one of many showing the hostility of Iraq to the UN and the US 2 - WMD's relate to chemical and biological weapons, not just nuclear. Plenty of chemical weapons were found http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com... http://www.captainsquartersblog.com... 3 - The humanitarian example was another reason justifying the invasion of Iraq. Hitler was the dictator in Germany but should we not have declared war on him because there was also a dictator in Spain too? 4 - only during the war against Iran, since then they made plenty of their own 5 - It was another reason showing why we thought Iraq was a threat when combined with unwillingness to comply with the UN, numerous invasions of their neighbors, oppression of their own people, etc. 6 - So you agree that Saddam funded suicide bombers 7 - See previous point about that and ignoring UN violations, use of chemical weapons, tyranny by Saddam 8 - Presidential oath by the Constitution requires the president to preserve, protect, and defend the US. I believe that anti-US terrorists count as a threat to the US... 9 - So now you suggest we simply disregard the fears of other nations simply because "they want a lot of things?" 10 - The US does like to help people, but last I checked we have to prioritize on where we do intervene. Shall we choose Darfur, a region of famine, or Iraq, a region of famine, chemical attacks by their own government, harboring of terrorists, ignorance towards the UN, violation of many UN resolutions, denying weapons inspectors to do their job, many wars against their neighbors, continuing to build chemical weapons, possible possession of nuclear devices, etc? I think ive made my point