First, ask yourself why President Bush would appoint an oil man to his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board?  What could an OIL MAN bring to the table concerning FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE?  The answer to this is found in the report issued by the GAO concerning peak oil:

According to IEA, most countries outside the Middle East have reached their peak in conventional oil production, or will do so in the near future. The United States is a case in point. Even though the United States is currently the third-largest, oil-producing nation, U.S. oil production peaked around 1970 and has been on a declining trend ever since. (See fig. 1.) (emphasis mine)

This needs to be repeated:  oil production in the United States peaked 37 years ago!  Most countries, outside of the Middle East, have already reached their peak in oil production or will do so soon.  How soon?  Eight out of twenty-one studies examined by the GAO predict that the world oil reserves will peak on, or before, the year 2020.  Thirteen out of 21 studies put that timing on, or before, the year 2040.  How essential is controlling the Middle East to oil baron's?

"On the basis of Oil and Gas Journal estimates as of January 2006, we found that of the approximately 1.1 trillion barrels of proven oil reserves worldwide, about 80 percent are located in the OPEC countries, compared with about 2 percent in the United States."

OPEC agrees:

According to current estimates, more than three-quarters of the world's oil reserves are located in OPEC countries. The bulk of OPEC oil reserves is located in the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq contributing 56% to the OPEC total.

We now see the reason that President Bush pushed so hard to invade Iraq and is pushing just as hard to find some justification to attack Iran.  Saudi Arabia (already friendly to the U.S.), Iraq and Iran, constitute 56% of OPEC's total oil reserves.  So, who are the top five countries in OPEC concerning oil reserves?  Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran , Kuwait and Venezuela.  

I doubt many would argue that the focus of President Bush was on oil from day one.  As the BBC noted in January, 2001:

The president, vice-president, commerce secretary and national security adviser all have strong ties to the oil industry.

But, the BBC also wrote:

There are also questions about how energy policy decisions may be affected by the private financial interests of so many senior cabinet members.

So, how might our "policy decisions" have been manipulated by private interests?

Cheney Energy Task Force Eyed Iraq Oil

Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, obtained a batch of task force-related Commerce Department papers that included a detailed map of Iraq's oil fields, terminals and pipelines as well as a list entitled "Foreign Suitors of Iraqi Oilfield Contracts."

The papers also included a detailed map of oil fields and pipelines in Saudi Arabia and in the United Arab Emirates and a list of oil and gas development projects in those two countries.

The papers were dated early March 2001, about two months before the Cheney energy task force completed and announced its report on the administration's energy needs and future energy agenda.

Venezuela Coup Linked to Bush Team

The failed coup in Venezuela was closely tied to senior officials in the US government, The Observer has established. They have long histories in the 'dirty wars' of the 1980s, and links to death squads working in Central America at that time.

The Iran Plans

"This is much more than a nuclear issue," one high-ranking diplomat told me in Vienna. "That's just a rallying point, and there is still time to fix it. But the Administration believes it cannot be fixed unless they control the hearts and minds of Iran. The real issue is who is going to control the Middle East and its oil in the next ten years."

The evidence is quite clear; the Bush administration planned all along, knowing peak oil was coming, to seize control of the worlds major oil reserves.  In 2005, President Bush all but confirmed it when he stated:

CORONADO, Calif. -- President Bush answered growing antiwar protests yesterday with a fresh reason for US troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields, which he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists.

Except... that was just another lie to cover the truth:

In fact there were two conflicting plans, setting off a hidden policy war between neo-conservatives at the Pentagon, on one side, versus a combination of "Big Oil" executives and US State Department "pragmatists".

"Big Oil" appears to have won. The latest plan, obtained by Newsnight from the US State Department was, we learned, drafted with the help of American oil industry consultants.

Insiders told Newsnight that planning began "within weeks" of Bush's first taking office in 2001, long before the September 11th attack on the US.

An Iraqi-born oil industry consultant, Falah Aljibury, says he took part in the secret meetings in California, Washington and the Middle East. He described a State Department plan for a forced coup d'etat.

Mr Aljibury himself told Newsnight that he interviewed potential successors to Saddam Hussein on behalf of the Bush administration.

Sounds all "tin-foil hat" doesn't it?  An oil industry consultant interviewing potential successors to a government?  Unfortunately, the coincidences keep mounting:

Two geological basins in northern Afghanistan hold 18 times the oil and triple the natural gas resources previously thought, scientists said Tuesday as part of a U.S. assessment aimed at enticing energy development in the war-torn country.

Nearly 1.6 billion barrels of oil, mostly in the Afghan-Tajik Basin, and about 15.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, mainly in the Amu Darya Basin, could be tapped, said the U.S. Geological Survey and Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines and Industry.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai described the estimates as "very positive findings," particularly since the country now imports most of its energy, including electricity.

"Knowing more about our country's petroleum resources will enable us to take steps to develop our energy potential, which is crucial for our country's growth," said Karzai, whose government was created after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 and later won national elections.

President Karzai signed the pipeline deal that oil companies had been seeking for decades in December, 2002.  And Iraq?  In 2002, this article appeared:

"What they have in mind is denationalization, and then parceling Iraqi oil out to American oil companies," says James E. Akins, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

Iraq in 2005?

Chalabi Named Iraq Oil Minister

Chalabi, whose government portfolio already includes heading the country's energy committee and overseeing security for oil infrastructure such as refineries and pipelines, will temporarily take the reins of Iraq's only major industry. He had briefly led the Oil Ministry earlier this year while the current government was being assembled.

Amazingly, there is this quote:

In June 1997, Chalabi spoke to JINSA's board, which includes, not surprisingly, Perle, Woolsey and key hard-line backers of Israel such as Jeane Kirkpatrick, Max Kampelman, Eugene Rostow and former Rep. Steve Solarz (D-N.Y.). "The INC plan for Saddam's overthrow is simple," Chalabi told JINSA. From its base in northern Iraq, the INC would begin to confront Iraqi forces with only political and logistical support from the United States, including U.S. efforts to "feed, house and otherwise provide for the Iraqi army as it abandons Saddam." Then, Chalabi concluded, "With U.S. political backing and regional support for a process of gradual encirclement, Saddam can be driven into hiding in Takrit and eventually removed."

The overthrow of Saddam Hussein was being pushed as far back as 1997 by Chalabi.

3,776 dead American soldiers and counting, and yes, the "noble cause" President Bush spoke of was control of the oil in the Middle East.