Nantuko Joe: To my knowledge, I havn't said the US was looking to import oil from Iraq...

Oh no, that's not even close to the case. It's more like capitalize off the export and production of Iraq's oil is more of my concern. Halliburton (Cheney's old company) has done dealing with Hussein in the past...

[quoteost_uid0="Washington Post"]
The Halliburton subsidiaries joined dozens of American and foreign oil supply companies that helped Iraq increase its crude exports from $4 billion in 1997 to nearly $18 billion in 2000. Since the program began, Iraq has exported oil worth more than $40 billion.

The proceeds funded a sharp increase in the country's nutritional standards, nearly doubling the food rations distributed to Iraq's poor.

But U.S. and European officials acknowledged that the expanded production also increased Saddam Hussein's capacity to siphon off money for weapons, luxury goods and palaces. Security Council diplomats estimate that Iraq may be skimming off as much as 10 percent of the proceeds from the oil-for-food program.[/quote]

I suggest you take a look at this article or this site for more info on Cheney's past dealings (which btw that last site has quite a collection of relative official documents regaurding this debate).

Bush on the other hand, has amassed his wealth upon Harken Energy Corp.

[quoteost_uid0="http://www.public-i.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=15&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0"]
Cumulatively,the President, Vice President and cabinet secretaries were worth somewhere between $149 and $434 million. By contrast, the net worth of the same 16 officials from the last year of the Clinton administration was in a range between $14.5 to $45.9 million.[/quote]

And has been givin a quite a bit of money from oil companies for election money.

[quoteost_uid0="http://www.ksdk.com/news/war_article.asp?storyid=34641"]Bush received nearly $2 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry during the 2000 election[/quote]

However,I think these close oil-ties play directly into the hands of post-war plans.

[quoteost_uid0="http://onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_detail/0"]
The Bush administration is considering whether under international law it can increase Iraqi oil production beyond the UN program to pay for Iraqi reconstruction, officials said. At issue is whether foreign occupiers can sell oil from the occupied country, even if the money goes to that nation. [/quote]

Now, due to this sentence structure, I can't tell wether they're saying that the proceeds would go to Iraq or the US (but it would make more sense for Iraq to be the reference there). But in any case, I think Bush's most recent announcements have made it clear that Corporate America is what will profit off of post-war Iraq.

[quoteost_uid0="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60717F93F550C7B8DDDAA0894DB4044 82"]Bush administration plans for rebuilding of Iraq reportedly call for private American corporations to undertake much of work, with United Nations development agencies and other multilateral organizations sidelined; with administration offering $1.5 billion in work to private companies and just $50 million to American aid groups, plan will leave out many large international organizations[/quote]

Now, if you'll kindly note the 1,500,000,000 as compared to 50,000,000; you might notice that there seems to be some profit-motives here...

I'm not saying this is the only reason the Bush Administration decided to invade Iraq, but it would seem pretty naive to say it wasn't a prodominant factor which made it more appealing.