It seemed extremely obvious to me.  Another piece of evidence was when GW gave his "Saddam has 48 hours" speech.  He said that Iraq should not destroy their oil wells or oil resources.  We were trained that after our primary mission was achieved, on our way back to bomb any and all sites where the enemy had a chance to help their war machine; oil resources was a big one.  If Iraq was truly a formidable enemy/global threat, we would've attacked those sites.  We did in Desert Storm, since at that time we knew nothing of their ability.

I'm of the mindset that if you want cooperation, you don't punch someone in the nose; you try to work with them and even show the willingness to do things to help them.  I believe this to be true with Iran and N. Korea, crazy as it sounds.  We've only used aggressive behavior towards them, and here we are with these problems.  Why keep thinking that way?  I'm guessing because we want the fight to force them under our power.