Why did we get excited about Iraq?

Not Afghanistan, Iraq!
We had to show the Russians how to whip Afghanistan (I think we eventually will) but Iraq? We will build a fence 12 foot high in the mountains between Pakistan (no man's land)and Iraq and that will solve the immigration problem with Pakistan, won't it? All they want is the money from the poppies anyway.
We let numerous countries kill millions of people before and didn't invade them! Pol Pot did pretty good at elimination.
China did after WWII, pretty good.
England did a pretty good job at it in India and the Khyber Pass (sounds familiar) and we didn't care. Only some guy named Gandhi cared very much.
The Spaniards did a pretty good job in the Islands and our west once upon a time.
Russia got rid of a bunch after WWII and we didn't much care. Cold in Siberia!
Somehow though, Iraq had something the others didn't have! You thought I was going to say OIL, didn't you?
No, of course not, Saddam!