Really, when you get down to it, the purpose of pre-emptively attacking Iraq is to establish the principle that America, under Bush, can and will attack pre-emptively when it wants to. In other words, its a test case, a beta if you will, for the new foreign policy regime of PNAC. All the rest is just window dressing designed to make it look prettier to those who would balk at such naked aggression. Even the idea of it being a war for oil is only a selling point to the industrialists. The Bush administration is nothing more than a protection racket which has chosen to use Saddam as an example to the rest of the world.