Here I go again Chris, sticking my nose in when I I don't want to but can't resist...

>>I'm sure you are not alone in your thoughts.
>>
>>But, to answer your question, how about three letters : O I L
>
>It has been about oil, but appeasement for oil, in the case of France and Russia. They have multi-billion dollar contracts with Iraq.
>
>President Bush has been quite clear that the oil belongs to the Iraqi people.

You do realize, I hope, that oil under U.S. soil "belongs to the people of the U.S." and that President Bush means the same thing - no more and no less - for the oil under Iraq to belong to the people of Iraq.
In other words... oil will be extracted by multi-national companies and those companies will pay royalties [to the Iraqi people]. No more, no less. The companies will get the world market prices and the Iraqi government ('people') will get FIXED royalties. The Iraqi government ('people') will collect big money but multi-national companies will collect HUGE HUGE HUGE PROFITS!

Now President Bush is already on record as stating that all existing contracts with the Iraqi government will be honoured. He really didn't have to say so because it is a condition of international (contract) law, but he did and I presume that it was to try to bribe the French and the Russians into submission for his "plan".

Finally, the Iraqi people, AT THIS MOMENT, are paying less than 20¢ per gallon for gasoline according to reports I saw on both CNN and CBS. I wonder what they will be paying once democracy is established in Iraq????