Yeah why the hell am I not paying 30 cents a gallon if this was all about cheaper oil?

You may be surprised to read that I don’t think the war was about oil, but at the same time you setup the argument as a typical straw man.

The oil arguments are more along the line of:

a) Its about access to oil, especially in the future.
b) Its about regional stability because we want oil. Ie its not about going into to steal the stuff but wanting to maintain a real and fair market and needing to prevent Iraq collapse. This is why some might argue we invaded Iraq but do nothing about, say, Zimbabwe or Burma.
c) Its about having Western oil companies getting the oil contracts. There is an element of truth to this - the oil contracts being awarded are a lot more favourable than any other Arab country offers.

So its not about cheap oil in the present, to get that would have been simple - end the sanctions. But some might argue its about securing long term access to Middle East oil supplies by a) encouraing stability (somewhat laughable in hindsight) or b) enabling long term military presence. This argument seems much stronger.

It’s also about control of the oil. It doesn’t just have economic value, it has strategic value. Now that it is owned by American companies, it can be used as a bargaining chip to pressure other countries who may want that oil (China, etc.).