C J Morgan,

Dr Nelson has not admitted that oil was a reason for invading Iraq. He has only admitted that it's a reason for staying. There's a big difference.

Iraq's people should be the one's to decide what they want.They were obviously happy to have Hussein and party gone but why so many deaths of troops and european civilians that work for the army?If we invade Iraq just for the oil then Yes it is morally wrong,Should we be out of Iraq now Thats a question? If we pull out to soon, the situation for the everyday Iraq's will worsen.So even if it was "just for the oil" then shame on J.Howard who put greed before human life.But if it was for the chance to give the little people in Iraq a fair go.Thats okay to put our troops in danger.Have you even thought? There are so many American troops and contractors getting injured and killed.How come our Australian troops and contractors have not sustained any injuries or deaths? when the coalition forces work side by side?Could you say we are just lucky,or we are just be kept in the dark?

Quite so, Sylvia Else. My mistake - I should've known that he and his bosses are incapable of being truthful.

Steel,
You are a true genius!

Steel,
Thanks for the work .

We should not be surprised .

Also from memory, George Bush announced some months ago that the US intended to double it's oil reserves .

I wondered then if this oil would come from Iraq ?

I am now thinking with 20% of Australia's oil coming from the "Middle East" according to the Defence Minister, how much of ours comes from Iraq and what is the price the blighted Iraqis are getting at the wellhead ?

America,having used much of their own resource, could be pouring precious oil back down into their own US wells -saving it up for a rainy day, when the rest of the oil thirsty world has sucked Iraq dry .

Congratulations to Brendan Nelson for some rare Truth from this Government in this Nightmare that is Iraq.

"So what's new? The USA only got involved in WW1 (and WW2) when it knew that they would miss out on the carve-up of the Middle East after it was over." Pres. Wilson continued the policy of USA isolationism until the Germans sank the Lusitania (1916). The English were the ones who double-crossed T.E. Lawrence and the Arab allies in the M.E. The Arab tribal chiefs knew that they had to get to Damascus before General Allenby, or the English wouldn't honour their deal. During WW1, the USA still had plenty of oil in Texas, California, etc., and didn't need M.E. oil. As for WW2, American isolationism was again official policy until Pearl Harbor. Churchill was prepared to surrender the top half of Oz, and if it wasn't for Aussies and the "Fuzzy-Wuzzy Angels" on the Kokoda Track and the Yanks at the Battle of the Coral Sea, we would have been spending the Japanese Pound. After the War the Yanks rebuilt Europe and Japan. Europe didn't have any resources the Yanks didn't already have and Japan had none. A lot of evidence supports the notion that this is "a War for oil", as much, if not more, than "a War against Terrorism". As far as Oz is concerned, it is not about "Little Johnny Howard" kissing George Dubya's arse, it is about the Oz way of doing things: we are considered to be one of the most charitable and friendliest nations on Earth, we finish what we start, we stick by our mates even if they don't always deserve it, we are egalitarian with "a fair go for everybody", we pull together in hard times even if we don't like each other too much in the good times. George W. Bush is a boofhead and one of the USA's worst Presidents, but the 3,000 plus Yanks and the thousands more Iraqis who have died require that in true Aussie spirit we do not abandon these people without a peaceful solution.