[Comrade]

Originally posted by giuliano, bush went to war in iraq becuase: 1. he ran on a platform of military superiority going right back to his '99 election campaign. he spent $billions on transforming the military into a networked, agile force. for a republican govt, that leads to one particular need: war. You were asking me "What broad sweeping generalizations do I make?" All republican goverments who upgrade our military do so because they want to start wars out of nothing? 2. iraq holds enormous geo-strategic importance. it was of course saudis who committed sep.11 and who are the major funders of anti-american terrorism. however the US is hamstrung in demanding saudi reform, due to its heavy reliance on saudi oil. by replacing french oil companies like schlumberger in iraq, another major holder of global oil reserves, with halliburton, the US can start applying more pressure to the saudis, and other ME oil-producing nations. the saudis committed 9/11? Or people who were born in saudi arabia committed 9/11? 3. china is set to place enormous strain on global energy supplies. again, much better to have american halliburton pumping ME oil than french or russian companies. I'm glad you have such personal knowledge of Bush's thought process, or no, wait, I see this one coming "Bush is dumb, he doesn't HAVE a thought process