It might be a difference in opinion over "looming" -- in America looming would be within a few months or maybe years. To the Sydney Morning Herald? I dunno.

There IS an oil crisis coming, but it's decades years away. How far away depends on how much we use alternate energy sources between now and then, and whether or not any major new supplies are found -- which is doubtful. Estimates of 30-50 years include the development of typical new supplies, with only fairly marginal movement toward alternate energy sources per current policy.

Fact is, there's a finite amount of oil in the world, and we use a lot of it.

You're right -- dropping the embargo would have worked easier. The money wouldn't have been flowing exclusively into US corporate pockets, though, and there was no way to control how much and to whom oil was sold. But whenever someone talks about oil supplies, it's not about ownership of it and it's not about the access to it, it's about CONTROL of it.

Maps and documents aside, I think the clearest indication of the priorities of the US in Iraq were when the oil fields and refineries were secured and repaired -- while hospitals were looted, medicines were unavailable, and water treatment plants shut down for lack of supplies during the sanctions and (more importantly) water distribution was disrupted were neglected -- until the oil was under control. Clearly, the oil was more important than the lives of Iraqis.