>"Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days.
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>The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972..."
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>http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2132569.ece

I think that we will have to send in several million troops to protect the oil. Maybe several hundred million troops would be required. Here is a better idea taken from technology in use for many years, but expanded!

Run a shaft from some remote point outside of Iraq, and pump out the oil. You do not have to be in Iraq and thus you save lives in the process! The shaft would be thousands of feet underground. Now as to the length of the shaft, that is another story. Where can we find the nearest place to dig such a well? Washington D.C.?