Doug,

The US does not get ANY oil from Iraq, although Iraq has plenty of it. Surprisingly, Iraq's oil embargo of the US didn't have much of an impact except to get the noses out of joint of certain oil executives.

The world's top 5 oil producing nations are: Saudi Arabia, Russia, US, Iran and China. The US's top crude supplier is Saudi Arabia, our top petroleum supplier is Canada. (Yep, Canada.)

What would stop Saddam from taking over Saudia Arabia? More than stopped him in Kuwait, and he was stopped pretty effectively. But how about a few hundred thousand US soldiers stationed on the border with considerable firepower and air supremacy, plus Saudi Arabia's own military forces, which are pretty well capable of defending themselves against someone like Iraq.

But you scenario for attacking Iraq is that Iraq and Russia are going to team up against the US? And that's why Iraq is a threat? Say what you will about Saddam (although I think he's learned a thing or two, rhetoric aside), but Putin is no stark raving idiot. Russia couldn't take on the US alone, let alone all of NATO.