Well, of course oil was involved

I know people who supported the Iraq war are annoyed to hear the words, "It was about oil," because those are very simple words. They sound more like a slogan than a theory.

However, there's no doubt oil played a role in the political calculation, and the planning, of the war on Iraq. I think everybody knew that. What we did not perhaps know is that there were two conflicting views on the question - an idealistic view, held by the neo-conservatives, that saw the end of state monopolies as an ideological principle, and the pragmatic view, held by the oil companies, that an invaded Iraq should retain state control over oil.

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