Nice try Teribus, but laying it all at the feet of Jimmy Carter is like trying to blame the Planter's Peanut Man for AIDS.

From my link above:

"A client oil state was first defined by Lord Curzon, who was the British foreign secretary after World War I. He said it was an "Arab facade ruled and administered under British guidance and controlled by a native Mohammedan and, as far as possible, by an Arab staff . . . There should be no actual incorporation of the conquered territory in the dominions of the conqueror, but the absorption may be veiled by such constitutional fictions as a protectorate, a sphere of influence, a buffer state and so on".

The US took over the British imperial prize in the Middle East after WWII. The official US State Department history (1945, volume 8, page 45) noted: "These resources constituted a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history . . . probably the richest economic prize in the world in the field of foreign investment."

The US is not going to give Iraq up without a fight, even if the main cost will be damage to its reputation as a good global citizen."