How can people believe oil is more valuable than a Free and Liberated Muslim Middle East?

you're absolutely correct. people, in this country particularly, have a tendency to be worried about the "here and now". they lack the vision. they don't care about history and they don't care about the future at a broader scale. that's unfortunate. cause if they did, they would come to the same conclusion you and i have done. and there would be less time spent on trying to make the other party look bad and who has more power and so and so on; and more quality time spent on winning this war. this is going to be a loooooong ordeal. it won't end in Iraq, and it shouldn't.