Why Are We In Iraq?

As I listen to the flow of "news" on our cable and network stations, I am constantly amazed at the lack of awareness of the underlying reasons that we are in Iraq. It seems to be common knowledge that the reasons fed to us by Bush, Chaney, Rice and others were lies. They blame these lies on “faulty intelligence”, often claiming that everybody, including other countries’ intelligence agencies, believed the “faulty intelligence”, and therefore, how could they be blamed. Further investigation reveals that all of this intelligence was hyped at the source: yellow-cake uranium, aluminum tubes, Rumsfeld’s internal Pentagon propaganda machine, etc.

The real reason we are in Iraq is clearly stated in the neoconservative (neocon) document entitled Rebuilding America’s Defenses http://newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf This is a 90-page document which is amazing for it’s honest statement of the neocon position. A summary can be found at http://gvtc.com/~mpingo/pnac2.html A longer exploration of the concept is Noam Chomsky’s Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project). I’m guessing that most readers don’t have the time to read these references, so I will take it upon myself to summarize.

America finds itself in a unique position as the world’s only superpower.
We must take advantage of this position by insuring that we remain the only superpower (at least for the next century, if not forever).
We can do this only if we control:
1. The oil spigot (middle east)
2. The military use of space
3. Cyberspace

In his book The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill, O’Neill reveals that at one of his first meetings with the National Security Council, long before 9/11, maps of Iraq were laid out on the table and the oil fields were being divided up. Remember Chaney’s (Haliburton) early meetings with oil company exec’s? The secret meetings which they refuse to even identify those in attendance (and apparently will not have to do so)? These were the first steps in the privatization of Iraq.

So the short answer is that we are “in Iraq” as one of the first steps in the realization of the neocon agenda. These people are very focused and very powerful. As the Bush "dynasty" continues under their control, they will continue to move forward with this agenda.

Stay tuned.