What I said was that the intention was to obtain the oil.

   The fact that Bush and Blair failed is not surprising.


The economics of what you think they tried to do is ludicrous and makes no sense at all. Iraq at the time that sanctions were applied was ranked 17th in the world for oil exports. Neither the UK or the US took any oil from Iraq all the time that sanctions were in place or if they did it came through traders in extremely small amounts. After 2003 the US bought a token amount of oil from Iraq and contrary to popular believe the USA is not dependent on oil from the region.

You cannot steal oil and although field service contracts have been awarded to foreign companies (Mostly National Oil Companies of foreign countries) the oil still belongs to Iraq or whatever other country an oil field is located in, it is a national resource and is treated as such. That has been the way that the international Oil & Gas Industry has worked for at least forty years. I am sorry but there is just no way at all that Bush or Blair could obtain Iraq's oil even if they had wanted to.