The Independent - Robert Fisk
Oil, War And A Growing Sense Of Panic In The US

Officially, Iraq contains 12 per cent of the world's oil reserves - two-thirds of the world's reserves are in just four other countries, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and the Emirates - but it could contain 20 per cent, even 25 per cent. It's possible to argue that it was Saddam's decision to switch from the dollar to the euro in November 2000 that made "regime change" so important to the US. When Iran threatened to do the same, it was added to the "axis of evil". The defence of the dollar is almost as important as oil. But the real irony lies in the nature of America's new power in Iraq. US oil deposits are increasingly depleted and by 2025, its oil imports will account for perhaps 70 per cent of total domestic demand. It needs to control the world's reserves - and don't tell me the US would have invaded Iraq if its chief export was beetroot - and it now has control of perhaps 25 per cent of world reserves. But it can't make the oil flow. The cost of making it flow could produce an economic crisis in the US. And it is this - rather than the daily killing of young American soldiers - that lies behind the Bush administration's growing panic. Washington has got its hands on the biggest treasure chest in the world - but it can't open the lid. No wonder they are cooking the books in Baghdad
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Putin Says U.S. Faces Big Risks in Iraqi Mission --President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia says the United States now faces in Iraq the possibility of a prolonged, violent and ultimately futile war like the one that mired the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. "How would the local population treat forces whose official name is the occupying forces?" he asked, suggesting that further hostility to the United States was inevitable unless its occupation received the international legitimacy it now lacks.

 
What commentators say about George W Bush

'Bush and his crew are looking desperate as the Iraq occupation becomes more of a problem ... Even Republicans on Capitol Hill are restless over his $87 billion budget request for Iraq ... people are questioning Bush's credibility over Iraq. They should'
Leader in the Nation

'Bush is in a lot of trouble. I think they know that now. They could lose this election'
Mel Goodman, senior fellow, Centre for International Policy

'This particular squad of scoundrels is desperate. They are no longer able to bludgeon dissenters with facts; the justifications Bush and his co-conspirators used for this pre-emptive war have been revealed as dissembling, distortion and outright lies'
Columnist Cynthia Tucker, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

'He wasn't involved. The President knows he wasn't involved. It's simply not true'
Scott McClellan, presidential press spokesman, defending Karl Rove from leak allegations

'A little cloud of illegality is forming over George W. Bush's White House. If the President does not act quickly to dissipate it, he may well be swimming for his political life in the deluge of accusations that surely will follow'
Leader in The Cleveland Plain Dealer