Obviously, you can't. Protecting pipelines in Iraq would be like protecting telephone lines in the US. The problem is the people behind the war never forsaw this happening, even though it is so obvious in hindsite, and to those of of not brainwashed to believe government propaganda, obvious in foresite. Do you don't see the dichotomy? Iraq has all these horrible weapons, and yet this will be easy? Both cannot be true, and of course neither was. Good thing too, imagine if they hadn't been lying, and all those weapons really existed. Where would they be now? Likely in the hands of Zarqawi (or however it's spelled) This talk of "democracy" is equally nonsense. The Iraqi elections came at the insistence of Sistani, over the objections of the US, who assumed their boy Chalabi would simply take over. Funny, they tell you one lie, get caught, tell another, and you fall for it again! Damn, if my girlfriend was that gullible, I'd be getting some pussy right now.