From The Campaign Trail

Truth at last! Five long years after the risky and illegal invasion of Iraq the Howard Government's real motives come to light. Defence Minister Brendan Nelson admitted that securing Australia's oil supply is one of the key reasons for deployment of our troops in Iraq. This admission was immediately smothered by Howard - truth is often unpalatable. But things are also a bit more subtle. Australia is in Iraq because America is in Iraq. We remain in Iraq because America remains. And this is the real oil / energy connection. America's motive for invasion was to secure its strategic oil / energy interests. That is not some left-wing conspiracy theory. For example, it is there for all to read in the many reports from the influential organization Project for a New American Century. Members of this neo-conservative movement included such luminaries as Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz. In 2000 The Project Report Rebuilding America’s Defenses spelled out the new mission for the US Army. It included the combat role of defending American interests in the Persian Gulf and Middle East and the imperative to remove Saddam Hussein. Note the date - 2000! All the other justifications for the Iraq invasions are simply window dressing. So Nelson is simply owning up to what everyone has known for a very long time. While it is now a decade old the Report remains an important document in understanding the lead up to the Iraq invasion. You can access it at:
http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf