"Believing that they could take it was just one more of their many mistakes."

Not in one thousand years JTS it was the anti-Bush, anti-war crowd that claimed that the US went into Iraq to "steal" Iraq's oil. It was the anti-Bush, anti-war crowd that said the invasion of Iraq was all about the USA taking control of the region and its oil. All complete and utter bollocks of course as I pointed out many many times.

As Doug R said:

"You mean the oil STILL belongs to the Iraqis"

It always did, it always will.

Ron Davies said:

"My understanding of this is that the foreign firms would not themselves own the oil, but would be paid by Iraq for their assistance in drilling for it."

I told you lot that years ago. Only it is not just drilling for it, that is one of the easier aspects of it. In the case of BP and their Chinese partners they have been awarded a service contract to develop the field, within a target period they MUST double field production or they do not get paid a cent. That is how BP ended up as part of the deal, they have the experience and technology to do this the Chinese who are the majority partner in the venture do not. There were six licences up for bid and BP/CNPC originally wanted $4 per barrel produced, they then entered negotiations with Iraq National Oil Company and accepted $2 per barrel produced, all the other bidders withdrew their bids as the risks for return was considered to be unacceptable.

Iraq's established oil fields are in a mess because Saddam Hussein used the countries oil wealth to buy arms, because of the Iran Iraq War and Desert Storm the onus was on production and no down hole, or reservoir maintenance was ever done. This normally results in a massive reduction in what can be recovered from the reservoir. The technology that existed in the North Sea in the late 60's, early 70's caused people to believe that the North Sea would run out of oil in 15 to 20 years, well it is still going strong due to advances in reservoir technology before you would expect to get a maximum of 50 to 60% out now if you do things right you can get 80 to 90% out.

Oh by the bye, I don't think anybody said that the "liberation" of Iraq would be paid for with Iraqi oil. I think what was said was that the reconstruction of Iraq would be paid for with Iraqi oil - Now that is a different thing altogether.