Quote from AAAintheBeltway:
Who knows? This is why I have maintained from the beginning that one of our first priorities should have been to secure the oil facilities and put them under US control. I suppose the administration was intimidated by all the moonbats howling htat we were there to "steal Iraq's oil." Better us than al qaeda.
If we had taken control of the oil wells, run them efficiently and used the proceeds to pay for rebuilding, it would have sent a far more powerful message to Saudi Arabia and others in the region than a bunch of people dipping their fingers in ink after voting for whoever the local iman told them to vote for. It would have also given us leverasge over the Iraqi pols, since we seem to be afraid to use our military to do anything.