Eleven months ago today, President Bush declared “Mission Accomplished” at a photo-op aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Amidst the cheering, many found it odd to hear victory called after neither of Bush’s stated goals of invasion had even been met — securing alleged (and since discredited) Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and bringing freedom to Iraq, which still lives under the occupation of a foreign military.

This begs the question of what Bush’s purpose in Iraq is. To answer that, we must look at his Cabinet members and their actions pertaining to Iraq. At the top is President Bush, who, among other things, is a former oil executive for Arbusto, which he created in 1977 with a group of investors. It failed in 1984.

Vice President Dick Cheney left his CEO spot at Halliburton to take office in 2001. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice served as a director at Chevron Oil from 1991 until taking office in 2001, during which time a 136,000-ton oil tanker was named after her. (It was renamed “Altair Voyager” in May 2001.)

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card was a vice president at General Motors before taking office in 2001. Commerce Secretary Don Evans is also deeply tied to the oil industry, having served as CEO of Tom Brown Inc. (with FY 2003 revenues of $467.6 million) from 1985 until taking office in 2001.

Last but not least is Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who has his own shady ties to big oil. He was twice sent to Iraq as President Reagan’s envoy. With the help of then-Secretary of State George Schultz (who interestingly enough, served as president and director of the oil giant Bechtel Group for eight years before joining the Reagan administration), Rumsfeld and Hussein discussed building the Aqaba pipeline from Iraq to Jordan. Rumsfeld and Hussein shook hands in a famous photograph taken in Baghdad on Dec. 20, 1983. Which company was pegged for construction? That’s right: Bechtel.

Following Sept. 11, America’s attention was turned to the oil-rich Middle East.

After failing to capture Osama bin Laden (remember him?), President Bush engineered the shift of anger from bin Laden to Saddam Hussein by subliminally linking his name to Sept. 11 in speeches.

With American anger and fear re-directed at Hussein, Bush led a carefully crafted mission along with his administration to alienate the world community to ensure Bush administration control over reconstruction contracts and most importantly, the oil itself.

When problems began to mount in Iraq, Bush’s only answer was to challenge Iraqi insurgents to murder even more of our soldiers. It must be easy taunting people from half-way across the globe to “bring it on” when the Capitol sits comfortably out of reach. It’s all a game, right?

Actually it’s just a sick joke. At the Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner in Washington on March 24, Bush made light of the nonexistent WMD matter. Somehow it’s funny that we fought a war under false pretenses.

Almost 600 American soldiers — actual people who used to live and breathe and plan for a future they lost the chance to see — have died for this incredibly funny joke. Ten thousand Iraqi civilians — enough dead meat to line up shoulder to shoulder for more than two miles — have died over this very funny matter. The U.S. doesn’t even keep track of the number of civilian dead anymore, showing how truly concerned this administration is for the well-being of Iraqis. To Bush and his oil-cartel Cabinet, the Iraqi citizens are nameless and faceless obstructions to big oil profit.

It is possible President Bush is simply a miserable failure on diplomatic issues. The mess in Iraq may be written off not as failed imperialism, but as failure through incompetence. His challenge to kill Americans may be spun as “good” and “energizing.” Even his jokes — which come at the expense of every human being who has lost life or limb — may be spun as “humor” by anyone who finds maimed children, paralyzed mothers and families gutted by war to be humorous.

When taken in combination, Bush’s true intentions come to light. With a cabinet packed with hand-selected oil industry millionaires, the administration cooked a story to take us to Iraq with the sole intention of grabbing oil for the companies the administration left to take office in 2001. Its ruthless, corporate objective was met by May 1, at great expense to everyone else involved. Bush’s proud exclamation on that day 11 months ago is one of the few truths we’ve heard regarding Iraq since.