According to the plans to invade Iraq set forth by the ‘Wolfowitz cabal,’ “American troops would also seize the oil fields around Basra, in southeastern Iraq, and sell the oil to finance the Iraqi opposition in the south and the Kurds in the north, one senior [Bush Administration] official said. ‘The takeover would not be dissimilar to the area we occupied in the gulf war,’ the official said.”
– Elaine Sciolino and Patrick E. Tyler, “Some Pentagon Officials and Advisers Seek to Oust Iraq’s Leader in War’s Next Phase,” The New York Times, Oct. 12, 2001