Reply #6: I don't think there is one, single reason

[wryter2000]

In my best guess of the order of importance:

1) Bush needed a war to boost his numbers. He wanted to be a "war president," and to a certain extent, it worked for him. I also believe there's no small amount of Oedipal over-compensation here. He's the underachiever of the family, mocked by his mother. This was a way to outdo his powerful father by getting "re-elected," and it had the added bonus of going after the exact same country his father didn't invade.

2) Oil

3) War profiteering

4) PNAC's loony-tunes theory that if we got rid of a dictator in the Middle East, the folks there would turn into good Republicans and join the country club. Everyone over the border would want to do the same. Viola -- peace in the Middle East, something no one else has managed.

5) Once 4 worked so well, do the same in other parts of the world. Result: Lots of "US friendly" governments, leading to huge profits to US megacorporations.

I could be wrong about the order of these, and it depends on whose reason you're talking about. For *asshat, I think only 1 mattered. For Cheney, 2 and 3 might have been most important. For other crooks, such as Wolfowitz, probably 4 and 5 were most important.