It's (STILL) The Fucking Oil, You Morons!

I said at the beginning there were always three (or four, depending on how you paerse 'em) prime imperatives for the USer occupation: 1) Remove Iraq as any kind of threat to Israel--1a) preferably through the balkanization/partition of the country into irreconcilably feuding bantustans; 2) gain control over the distribution and allocation of the oil; and 3) establish a permanent military presence in the region from bases in Iraq that put the whole of western Asia under USer tactical bombsights.

Now that the USer "combat troops" have been "withdrawn" to the 30 or so "temporary" bases the USers have built over the last six years, and ensured that they're going to stay IN IRAQ for the foreseeable future --if not exactly IN the cities, at least close enough to bomb the shit out of them should they become restive or threaten the oil-- it's mission accomplished in Iraq, with "international" oil companies (Brit and USer) now bidding to exploit the rest of the country's supplies, and Israel's north flank protected, and the Kurds threatening to partition the country again.

And no exit in sight...