Well, whaddya know. “In August 2002… …Cheney warned… ‘Armed with an
arsenal of these weapons of terror, and seated atop ten percent of the
world’s oil reserves, Saddam Hussein could then be expected to seek
domination of the entire Middle East…’ Cheney has since been criticized
for exaggerating the threat that Saddam represented, bu the geostrategic
thinking that underpinned the energy portions of his speech was not new. It
dated back to January 23, 1980, when Presdient Jimmy Carter declared, in his
State of the Union address, ‘Let our position be absolutely clear: An
attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will
be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of
America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary,
including military force.’”
[From “Pump Dreams” by John Cassidy, THE NEW YORKER, 10/11/04, p.45.