When the U.S. Government invaded Iraqi on March 19, 2003, under the cover of replacing a dictator of it's own making, it's true purpose was liberating oil resource revenues from the Iraqi people. When US troops crossed into Iraq on day one of this ongoing war, Navy Seals and Royal Marines raided two oil terminals, Kaabot and Mabot, as well as capturing oil facilities on the Faw peninsula.

On day 2, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force secured the Rumaylah oil fields, gas oil separation plants (GOSPs), and crude oil export facilities. Four GOSPs, a key pumping station at Az Zubayr, a manifold and metering station on the Al Faw peninsula, and the offshore crude oil export facilities. The Mina al Bakr export facility was also captured intact and in working order.

On the third and last day before Operation Iraqi Liberation was changed to Operation Iraqi Freedom, because OIL was too fitting an acronym, US Forces secured oil facilities on the outskirts of Baghdad before invading the city proper. The equation was quite simple, getting out was never considered. Oil first, then occupation.

While Iraq was being bombarded from the air and chaos erupted on the ground, US troops ignored schools, museums, libraries, and hospitals in order to immediately secure and protect oil facilities. Within the first two weeks of Operation Iraqi Liberation, Iraq's oil infrastructure was under the control of US and British forces.

Mission accomplished.

Over 5 years later, the U.S. now has at least 17 permanent military bases in Iraq, and an Embassy on a 104-acre site on the Tigris river where U.S. and coalition authorities are headquartered, in a high-tech, self-sustaining palatial compound of 21 buildings. Water, electricity and sewage treatment plants all independent from Baghdad's city utilities. The $592 million U.S. embassy is touted as the largest, and most secure in the world.

With more than1,000 U.S. government officials calling the new compound home, embassy workers have access to a gym, swimming pool, barber and beauty shops, a food court and a commissary. In addition to the main buildings, there is a large-scale Marine barracks, a school, locker rooms, a warehouse, a vehicle maintenance garage, and six apartment buildings with a total of 619 one-bedroom units.

I write this now as antidote to all this talk about benchmarks, surges, and troop withdrawals, as such talk is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, political theater meant to distract from and defend a U.S. occupation of Iraq. As long as there is oil in Iraq, U.S. troops will be stationed in Iraq to guarantee U.S. oil interests have unfettered access to Iraqi oil. Iraqi and Saudi Arabian oil resources are why the United States will soon declare war on Iran.

The U.S. Federal government has no intention of leaving Iraqi, truth, justice or the will of the people be damned. This is a war over a precious, and dwindling resource. North America is addicted to oil. From plastic to petrol, and the billions of consumer goods in between, oil is the life blood of corporate capitalism.

It's time we faced the truth, there is a McEmbassy in Baghdad, and Uncle Sam is there to say. Addicted to crude consumption, he can't afford to leave.

Free California!