As the United States gears up for an attack on Iran, one thing is certain:the Bush administration will never mention oil as a reason for going to war. Asin the case of Iraq, weapons of mass destruction (WMD) will be cited as theprincipal justification for an American assault. "We will not tolerate theconstruction of a nuclear weapon [by Iran]," is the way President Bush putit in a much-quoted 2003 statement. But just as the failure to discover illicitweapons in Iraq undermined the administration's use of WMD as the paramountreason for its invasion, so its claim that an attack on Iran would be justifiedbecause of its alleged nuclear potential should invite widespread skepticism.More important, any serious assessment of Iran's strategic importance to theUnited States should focus on its role in the global energy equation.