"by the way the US didnot go in for oil, at least not directly.
but a non-opec oil nation with reserves the size of Iraq could dump lots of oil on the market and thus make OPEC irrelevant. that would be good for the US, although one wonders if the money spent on the Iraq war and the estimated cost ($2-3trillion) to the US were better spent on energy independence." - GUEST,Petr - 11 Jan 07 - 07:27 PM

Eh? Petr, thought you might want to have a look at the following taken from OPEC's website:

"The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a permanent, intergovernmental Organization, created at the BAGHDAD Conference on September 10–14, 1960, by Iran, IRAQ, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The five Founding Members were later joined by nine other Members: Qatar (1961); Indonesia (1962); Socialist Peoples Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1962); United Arab Emirates (1967); Algeria (1969); Nigeria (1971); Ecuador (1973–1992); Gabon (1975–1994) and Angola (2007). OPEC had its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, in the first five years of its existence. This was moved to Vienna, Austria, on September 1, 1965."

The US did not go in for Oil period. And that can be clearly shown by the US's own daily oil import figures and by detailed lists of field operators in Iraq.