It has been six years since America Invaded Iraq and overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein. In that time more than 4300 U.S. servicemen have lost their lives and nearly 10,000 have been wounded.

The death toll among Iraqi civilians is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands with dozens more continuing to be killed every week.

With so much death and destruction along with a blurred objective for the war many Americans have wondered "should we be in Iraq at all?"

The Bush administration initially went to war with Iraq because they were said to be an eminent danger to the Middle East region and the world as a whole. Saddam Hussein was suspected of possessing weapons of mass destruction (WMD's) which it was feared that he might use against neighboring countries.

The fear grew out of an incident after the Persian Gulf War in which Hussein used chemical weapons against The Kurdish religious sect that lived in the northern region of Iraq. Several hundred Kurds were killed or badly injured in the attack.

Shortly after September 11, President George W. Bush declared a war on terror which meant any person or nation suspected of terrorist activity against the United States would be subject to punishment, including imprisonment if found to be cooperating with terrorists.

Under the precept of America's war on terror, the Bush administration accused Saddam Hussein of sponsoring terrorist training facilities in Iraq. This, combined with the danger that he posed by possessing weapons of mass destruction, in the eyes of the Bush administration made him a target for the war on terror.

Only months after beginning the Afghanistan War, President Bush and his advisers started making plans to invade Iraq and on March 1, 2003 those plans were carried out.

It has been six-plus years since the invasion. Much of the country lays in ruins with many communities still without basic services like water and electricity. With the recent comments by former vice president Dick Cheney that he does not believe that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11 we find oueselves asking the question "Why did we invade Iraq?"

There are three reasons that stand out to me.

Old Standing Vendetta

It was widely reported that Saddam Hussein had made a plan to assassinate the elder George (H.W.) Bush after the Persian Gulf War. The plan was thwarted but it was rumored that George W. Bush still held a grudge. It was speculated that September 11 provided the younger Bush the opportunity to strike back at Hussein and he took it.

Whether this is true or not is up to speculation but one thing is for certain, it was a strange manuever to suddenly turn from the war in Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama Bin Laden the one responsible for 9/11 and then direct more than 100,000 troops to invade Iraq who for all intent and purpose was occupying a nuetral position.

No weapons of mass destruction were ever found and just recently it was admitted by some former members of the Bush administration that none probably ever existed.

Easy Target

Beside the fact that Saddam Hussein was accused of being affiliated with terrorists, he was an easy target.

The Bush administration knew that Hussein's army was no match for the United States armed forces. They knew that they could roll over Iraq's National Army like a soda can and that's exactly what they did.

In a matter of two months President Bush was standing on the deck of the carrier USS Abraham giving what amounted to, a victory speech under a banner that read "Mission Accomplished."

The banner proved to be premature however. Since that time a rebel insurgency of Saddam Hussein loyalists have waged a violent war against U.S. forces up until the recent troop withdrawal to allow Iraqi Security Forces to take control of the country.

Oil Revenues

There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the primary reason that we invaded Iraq was for the oil. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why the number one consumer of oil in the world would invade an oil bearing country.

Iraq rich oil supplies made it a place of great interest to the United States.

When the U.S. invaded Iraq one of the presumptions by the Bush advisors, was that America would be greeted as liberators and embraced by the people of Iraq.

It probably is not too far of a stretch to believe that the Bush administration thought that within the gratitude of the Iraqi people there would be some oil. After all, we freed you from a ruthless dictator who reigned over you in a regime of violence.

As it turned out, the Iraqi people did not greet the Americans as liberators but as trespassers and wanted them out of their country as soon as possible. This response was a slap in the face of the Bush White House but more importantly the American soldiers who bleed and died for their freedom.

At this posting U.S. troops have withdrawn out of all major Iraqi cities leaving The Iraqi Security Forces in charge.

American soldiers and their families have paid a high price for the invasion of Iraq and so have the Iraqi people.

The reasons that we were given for invading Iraq by the Bush administration have obviously been proven to be false. It is nothing less than criminal, what the Bush White House subjected the people of Iraq and the citizens of America to endure.

We may never know the true reason for the invasion of Iraq but one thing is for certain, someone knows and until they tell us we can only speculate.