All this time you probably thought we invaded Iraq because we wanted to destroy Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, or because we wanted to bring democracy to the Middle East, or because Saddam Hussein was a world-class bastard, or so we could get control of Iraq’s oil before we hit Hubbert’s Peak.

Apparently you were wrong. Apparently we were tricked into invading Iraq by the Iraqis themselves. Apparently those greedy little buggers have been after that fat reconstruction package from the beginning.

Or so Salon’s Michelle Goldberg reports from Restoration Weekend.

The self-regarding humanitarianism that the right wrapped itself in before the war with Iraq is beginning to fray and chafe. At Restoration Weekend there was anxiety about the postwar situation, and anger. Senators and congressional representatives avowed their faith that Bush’s fabled steadfastness made victory assured in Iraq, a stance they struggled to reconcile with the White House’s recently announced decision to expedite the transfer of power to Iraqis and scale back the occupation by election season. Meanwhile, the right’s intellectuals and activists had largely scrapped talk of democracy. Some suggested that the Iraqis themselves are our enemy, that we owe them nothing. [Conservative ideologue Daniel] Pipes referenced “The Mouse That Roared,” the 1959 film in which a poor country declares war on America, hoping to lose and be rebuilt like Germany and Japan. The implication seemed to be that Iraq is both lucky and greedy.

Apparently, if we rebuild Iraq, the terrorists win.