Quote Originally Posted by shiningblue
However, I do not think that the US Department of State or Defense masturbates to the thought of killing Muslims. Is there oil in the Middle East? Of course. Are so dependent on this oil that if a crisis were to happend the American economy would crumble? Maybe so. But do we go out of our way to kill innocent people? No.
So why did they attack Afghanistan ? There was no oil and really not much to seize. Maybe were they just testing their new weapons before Iraq, but the fact remains that the Taliban regime was a Muslim fanatical one. If you say to catch Bin Laden, well he is from Saudi Arabia, which is also happens to be the richest country for oil.

But the main reason I think the US is ready to fight for its believes as much or even more than for money is its history of fighting communism worldwide since 1948. What did they gain in China/Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, or in spending huge sums of money to keep dictators favourable to US capitalism in South America (Nicaragua, Chile, etc.) ? This was mostly for ideological reasons, and the US probably lost more than it got in return (especially in Vietnam). So what makes you believe they don't want to get rid of Muslim extremist ? Iran and North Korea are both on Bush's blacklist. The former for being too Muslim, the latter for being too communist. Certainly not for resources (North Korea is one of the poorest country on earth). If they wanted oil, they'd attack Saudi Arabia, but they are alreday in good terms and can get what they want. However friends they may be, the US government still warned its Saudi ally over religious freedom today (see BBC article).