Sorry!

That does explain a lot.

So. Besides having a scientist with a column, is the Stranger thinking about some sort of "Dear Lawyer" column?

I agree with your assessment, and would add the following:
Bush, Cheney and now McCain assume that, in the present desperate world, you can stop at being a little ruthless, by merely throwing our weight around a little.

As Russia--and even Iran--have shown us recently, lots of countries can throw their weight around. If we want to win that fight, we can't be a little bit ruthless. We have to be willing to go all out, or our bluff will be called.

Only the US has the scientific and technical infrastructure to develop an alternate to petroleum. It's our advantage in this situation. We should play it.

Sure he promotes exploration of alternatives, but he also wants to consider off shore drilling. Besides, once he is in the White House and learns his place with the military and the oil interests his tune will change - and fast.

This problem, as you describe it, goes far beyond the election of one President and/or a Congressional majority.

But when you start talking about the US owning the oil there, you're into 911Truther territory. No one with any sense, even the craziest neocon, believes the US could simply claim the right to Iraqi oil and get away with it. And for those that think Halliburton getting oil services contracts is the same as owning the oil fields, you're really stretching there.

These mafiosi aren't long-term, big picture guys. Maybe Iraq was just about securing a foothold while driving up the speculative oil prices, since we're going to have to go off oil over the medium term anyway. Oh, and any excuse to pour money into the defense budget.

...Do the prevailing winds blow from Saudi Arabia to Iraq or vice versa?

Dude - you are SO going to have a bad day when you find out that Santa isn't real.

No.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070626150753/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19375611/site/newsweek/

Newsweek poll of 1001 adults
June 18-19 2007

Q10 Which one of the following countries did most of the 9/11 hijackers come from?

43% Saudi Arabia
20% Iraq
14% Iran
11% Syria
12% don't know/refused

Q6 Do you think Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001?

June 2007 41% Yes 50% No
Sept 2003 47% Yes 37% No

Just because there hasn't been any new oil coming from Iraq at any noticeable rate and prices are still climbing does not mean that the motivation was not about oil. Most likely it was a combination of both his ego and the desire for Iraq's oil, its just the oil part hasn't panned out the way they predicted or desired (much like every other aspect of this sham of a "war")