jayeff

I don't recall writing that it was the whole story. I was responding to a post in which you wrote "do people really stil believe this had anything to do with oil?" (emphasis mine).

Had you said originally that oil is "1 small part of the puzzle", I would have taken issue with you over the "small", if only because oil was at the center of US foreign policy in this region long before the other issues you mentioned existed.

And of course there is oil elsewhere, but in other places - you mentioned Africa - the situation is entirely different. In theory there is nothing to prevent us invading Nigeria for example, to secure their oil. But the oil companies (not all American) are managing very well on their own to help keep the country poverty stricken, so there is no need for such intervention even if we could come up with a palatable excuse for it.