>From the Muttitt article I just posted: (should have been on original post):
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2005/crudedesigns.htm 1. The Ultimate Prize: Anglo-American interests in Gulf oil The UK and US have long had their eyes on the massive energy resources of Iraq and the Gulf. In 1918 Sir Maurice Hankey, Britain's First Secretary of the War Cabinet wrote: "Oil in the next war will occupy the place of coal in the present war, or at least a parallel place to coal. The only big potential supply that we can get under British control is the Persian [now Iran] and Mesopotamian [now Iraq] supply Control over these oil supplies becomes a first class British war aim."(1) After World War II both the US and UK identified the importance of Middle Eastern oil. British officials believed that the area was "a vital prize for any power interested in world influence or domination"(2), while their US counterparts saw the oil resources of Saudi Arabia as a "stupendous source of strategic power and one of the greatest material prizes in world history"(3). END QUOTE Things haven't changed a bit.
