ill say that its about national interest, as interpreted by whatever party in in power... (which is probably gonna get changed up in a month or so...)
i dont know how much oil were seeing out of iraq right now... so if that was the plan, it doesnt seem like a very good one.
we still are going to get most of our oil from the saudis, probably for a long while. and with the increasing means to get at the sandy oil reserves in alberta, plus the increased exploation in the caspian sea region of russia, the dependancy on the middle east in general may be weakening.
i think that the iraq thing was based mostly on the idea that we could get iran surrounded.