Post-War Gas

Remember before the invasion when your smarmy Republican friends smirked whenever Iraqi oil was mentioned? Not that anyone was willing to admit that control of oil was the real motivation behind the invasion, but one of the supposed benefits of invading Iraq (wink wink, nudge nudge) was safeguarding America's supply of oil. Cheap oil, cheap gasoline for you and me.

Oh, those pragmatic Republicans.

We now have sixteen (16) permanent military bases in Iraq. The administration insists that we'll leave as soon as democracy is secured and the new government can defend its citizens. We are training their new security forces almost as fast as they're getting killed. We, not the new Iraqi government or the Iraqi people, will decide when we will leave.

But we can't leave anytime in the near future because the Iraqis need to be defended. Of course, the primary reason the Iraqis need to be defended is because we're there. We made sure they need to be defended by not securing weapons stockpiles and ignoring smuggling routes, focusing instead on the oil fields. And the oil still needs to be defended, as it surely will until it's all gone -- bleeding out at $60+ a barrel.

So the question is, will the oil run out before the Iraqi security force is functionally sufficient and we're ready to invade Iran?

Or by then (just speculating) will all the remaining oil companies have merged into one mega-corp with its own army of 'contractors' and have taken over from their subsidiary, the American military?

That would be Republican pragmatism at its finest -- if they could just figure out a way for American taxpayers to pay for it...

...say at the rate of $2.50 a gallon.