The pirates became big news after hijacking an arms shipment from Russia.

The reasons why we went into Iraq are many. Miscalculations on both sides, inteligence errors, culture confict, religion, economic factors other than oil, ambitions of individuals and nations, history recent and old, geography, and yes oil in the region. If you look at the cause of most wars you can see many factors each my them self not enoff for war but combined you get an explosive situation.

Spartan now you English know how it feels to be some ones bitch for an change. You English have screwed over half the world. Now it's your turn, and you don't even have pretty teeth. So squeal nice and loud.

Is that last sentence a "Deliverance" reference?

Do you think the English would get it?

I don't know. It's not exactly the most approachable movie. And Burt Reynolds' in it...

Way to show the US at its best!

Perhaps if an Scots accent was used? I'm sure a few Scotsmen would like to have done the same to the English.

How much did Israel and Iran influence the US trying to install Democracy to the region, specifically Iraq?

I'm sure alot.

I am scottish... Maybe it would have been more accurate to use Birtain or the UK rather than England.

US invaded Iraq so they could justify spending countless billions of dollars on the military. It is in the best interest of military-industrial complex (oil traders being the part of it). USA military-industrial complex discovered how profitable it is to engage in foreign wars in 1898, and haven't stopped joyfully entering wars ever since. After they exit Iraq in next couple of years, next Republican President will find suitable country to invade by the end of the next decade. 5,000 dead & 50.000 wounded US soldiers are small price for enormous profits made by those who do not send their sons to war.

I just hope next target will be Iran, who has and will have a capability to brake the will of American to fight like 10 Vietnams would do.

Lunacy. Sheer oversimplified lunacy. It actually saddens me that people honestly believe that people at all levels of government would start a war just for financial gain. But I guess it's an interesting fantasy way to look at things.

Regardless of whether a Military Industrial Complex is actually running American policy in some grand, multi-generational conspiracy, blaming just the Republican party is incorrect. World War I, World War II, Kora, and Vietnam happened during Democratic administrations. Only Desert Storm and the Iraq War were under Republicans, and Desert Storm was one of the most justified wars in recent history. The Spanish-American War was under the Republican McKinley, but he was against it till Congress had pretty much made up their minds to declare war. But your underlying thesis is invalid so it makes no difference.

Reality is exciting enough without creating delusional theories about some overarching, enormous lie.

"people at all levels of government would start a war just for financial gain"

Know your history. Not the stuff you learn in school. War = MASSIVE profit.

You telling me that people wouldn't take advantage of that? Cuz see, THAT'S what's sad!

Keep believing that those in power actually care about you, I guess. I'm sure it makes you sleep better at least.

Let me rephrase that for dramatic effect:

War = MASSIVE, Astronomical, unequaled, you-can't-spend-it-fast-enough profit.

well, warsprite, i am an idealist.

kick it out of me if you can

Invictus, you probably also believe that Goebbels invented propaganda? Wehrmacht didn't have "embedded" journalists, if I remember correctly. US was the ONLY participant country that came out of WWI and WWII richer and more developed then before the war. Yes, of course, Japs did bomb Pearl Harbor. Did you ever ask yourself WHY they did it?

You're making a bunch of confused points there. I don't understand what you're trying to get at.

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor (and the Philippines and Hong Kong) because the US had an oil and rubber embargo against them and they needed to get those resources in Malaya and Dutch Indonesia. So there's your war for oil. Kind of.

You're just too far wrapped up in your crazy cocoon for reason to get at you. When you make nutty accusations like that the burden falls on YOU to prove them true. So give us some evidence that people knowingly constructed the Iraq War for financial gain. Something that would hold up in court, because if it were true of course these people should be punished. Just prove it.

Sorry spartan for calling you an Englishman glade to see you've been properly assimilated into the former British Empire.

Denzel it is normal for the main winner to come out better off after a war. If profit was the main US motive we would have sided with the Germans in WWI and would have been even better off by taking the British possessions in the Caribbean and chunks of Canada. Instead we ended up with a few islands in the Pacific.

Darwyn. In low level wars like in Iraq the volumes of ammo and supplies used is to low to create such large profits that you dream of. Much of the new high tech equipment used over there is bought in low volumes making for low profits per unit. Than a large chunk of the money also goes to just the logistical tail of the military and that is done mostly by the military it self.

One Word: Oil : )

By the way if the corporations are making such huge profits why has the stockmarket kept falling.

$600 billion is low? Compared to WW2, perhaps.

War for financial gain is nothing new here. And neither is your ability to turn a blind eye toward it.

What you/Invictus call lunacy, I call human nature. Surely you've underestimated Greed, no?

You're too wrapped up in that Cocoon of Craziness to believe anything else.

Show us some proof, real proof that it was done for money.

Show me an industry that makes more money than war.

Computer chips, agribusiness, international banking...

Proof!

Haliburton, just throwing it out their.

But proof that the war was made to make people money. There is none and without if there's no evidence there's no reason to believe outlandish ideas about evil corporate types and corrupt people high in government conspiring to wage a war for private gain. It's just not there.

It's interesting to see how many people have such a simple idea of why the US went into Iraq to overthrow Saddam's regime. Just saying 'Oil' isn't really making a point for the war. What was the oil situation leading up to the war and how did the US hope to improve on this situation? Also, anyone who argues that blindly going to war to fuel a military industrial complex also needs to argue their point. It seems pretty simplistic to me and false. After all, the US could still keep spending on defence and selling arms even without the war (and the expense of the war!)

I believe it was for much more political purpose rather than greed, but I'd like to get down to what people think those political purposes were, as complex and misguided as they might be...

I really believe that if Israel wasn't under threat in the region by other middle east countries/states, then there would have been no war...