I must confess that factoring in the IOB into the current US rhetoric towards Iran makes for compelling speculation.

Maybe not, KR, but the Rendon Group could.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/10962352/iran_the_next_war/

Well worth a scroll down to “Clients” in link below just to confirm with whom they do business.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rendon_Group

http://www.ozdemocracy.com/forums

The entire Iraq privatization subject is a IMO very plausible and rationale strategy in this day and age if your aims are to establish systemic long-term economic infiltration. However – a successful process would require the maintenance of political instability over a long period (but not too unstable as to trigger rebellion and potential loss of assets). Clearly the current internal conflicts within Iraq are providing the appropriate level of festering instability – but sufficient stability for the interim government to pass legislation enabling the sell-off of oil assets e.g. Hunt Oil and what seems to be a close alignment members of the current US administration (refer Spoils of War detailing concerns of a the Democrat Dennis_Kucinich.

Yep, like Joshua, you know, it’s biblical, ‘tear down this wall’, and presto, the wall came down!

Nobody dares remind the poor deluded nutters that sane economists from the 60’s said it was unsustainable, and that the USSR would eventually implode.

But hey, why not spend a few trillions of dollars defeating a country where they lined up to buy the only pair of shoes in the store?

Their gullibility knows no bounds, just look at the current POTUS! But it seems they do eventually ‘get it’, judging from his popularity.

That Palast article is chilling, the sheer cynicism and arrogance of the neocon madness that created this nightmare just takes my breath away.

WMD? Democracy?

Only fools, dribbling cretins, the terminally dysfunctional, or the most deviously vicious could ever profess these ‘noble’ reasons for what was unleashed in Iraq.