The US&allies most recent invasion of Iraq has been a magnificent success, (Dick Cheneys) Halliburton PL alone has taken over $13billion in contracts, (GW Bush's dads company) the Carlyle Group has taken billions more, and nobody has died except a million Iraqi's & 5000 yankee trailer trash.

Would we do it again? Surely we will, cos
a) we NEED their oil,
b) theres lots of money to be made, &
c) its what the anglosphere has been doing for centuries.
We call it progress.

do it again? mate, we didn't 'do it' in the first place.

dubya did it, howard followed, ozzies weren't consulted. graziers don't consult sheep, you know. i do wish you'd stop pretending to be citizens when you're not- it's a kind of adolescent boasting which invites ridicule.

when did we agree to 'do it' the first time?

Australia is already doing it again in one sense. Our ongoing deployment of troops in Afghanistan shows how little imperialism round the world understands the ability of ordinary people to fight back.

US imperialism is locked in battle with European imperialism and with the rapidly growing Chinese imperialism for global economic dominance. China's share of world GDP is now about 10% from memory, while the US remains at about 20%. The difference is I think that the shift has involved productive capital moving towards China. While the US share of world GDP has remained relatively the same since 1975 or so, its nature has changed from the productive sectors to unproductive sectors (or to put it crudely from goods to services.)

The US invasion of Iraq had many reasons but one was that it was an attempt to warn the Chinese that US military power exists to ensure and enforce US economic dominance around the world.

If that is the case it has been a complete failure.

The developments in Basra highlight the dangers for the US. The puppet regime is attacking Sadr and his Medhi army to force them to give up their weapons (ie surrender to the puppet regime with unknown consequences).Sadr's call to do so only when the invaders have left will resonate with most Iraqis. Despite all the crap in The Australian and other mainstream newspapers, most Iraqis hate the western invaders.

Sadr's call and the ongoing fighting has the potential to unite Shia and Sunni against the common enemy. We shall see.

Australia is involved because it wants to defend ANZUS. It is under the umbrella of the alliance with the US that we can pursue our own imperialist interests in the region. That is why Rudd, although he is moving out of Iraq supposedly, is continuing with the much more dangerous role we play in Afghanistan. By doing so he hopes we can impose our military and or economic will on the so-called failed states of the region and continue our economic expansion into South east Asia.