Revolutionary Moderation

You mean Iraq has oil? Huh. What a coincidence.



Unlike so many of my left-leaning bretheren and sisteren, I don't happen to believe that the war in Iraq is about American control of the world's second largest oil reserves. Oil changes the situation, to be sure, but I don't think the Americans are simply lawless merceneries taking whatever juicy piece of the world suits them.



But it's tough to believe my American neighbours are misguided yet pure of heart, when you see a story about the military preparations that includes this paragraph:



At the meeting, on the future of a post-Saddam Iraq - details of which have been disclosed to the Guardian - the state department stressed that protection of the oilfields was "issue number one".



Damn, did we say issue one? That was supposed to be the Kurds! Or the nukes... or the civilians... or getting Saddam... or... something. I don't really remember. But it's not about oil.