re: Do you use the word "[oil] interest" to mean asset?
The following sentence explained it.
The US was the largest customer of Iraqi oil. We, apparently, were the only nation who paid for it.
We don't own the fields - we simply make sure the insurgents don't own them. It's the exact sam modus operandi we have had for 50 years in the region. Why did we have soldiers housed in Saudi Arabia? Why have we had a fleet in the gulf region for decades and not the the mediterranean?
Our 'interests' lay in keeping the fields, and the governments who we buy from secure. Thus the Gulf War to protect Saudi's fields from an emboldened Saddam, etcetera.
Folks don't realize that the Saudis don't really want us out of Iraq either, even though they have to give lip service to it. When we're in Iraq we can protect them without having barracks and compouinds on their soil. If we split, they would be vulnerable to revolution. They know they have been greedy hogs - but compared to where the French & Chinese get their oil (the genocidal maniacs) - the Saudis are great humanitarians. And they are the keepers of Mecca, and made the pilgrimmage free - so that's a feather in their cap.
No go to Hawaii already and let the humidity clear the LA smog out of your lungs & brain.
;-)