The June 10 front-page article "Military Envisions Longer Stay in Iraq" provided much useful information regarding a planned long-term U.S. military occupation in Iraq, but it failed to give a reason why 40,000 or more U.S. troops might be there for decades.

The answer is surely oil interests. Last month Congress passed a bill continuing funding for the Iraq war with a "benchmark" provision threatening suspension of reconstruction funds if Iraq's government fails to enact a law opening up its oil industry to privatization, something no other oil-rich Middle Eastern country has done. Predictably, this idea is vigorously opposed by many in the Iraqi parliament and the oil workers union.