CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

Worried About the Price of Gas? End the Wars

Oil Wars

By
ISMAEL HOSSEIN-ZADEH

Despite
all the recent talk of soaring prices at the pump, political and
economic pundits rarely mention the impact of war and political
instability in the Middle East on the skyrocketing price of oil. There
is strong evidence, however, that the heightened price of energy is a
direct consequence of the destabilizing wars and geopolitical
insecurity in the region.

These
include not only the raging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also the
threat of a looming war against Iran. The record of soaring oil prices
shows that anytime there is a renewed U.S. military threat against
Iran, fuel prices move up several notches.

Not
long ago the price of oil was about a quarter of what it is today. But
soon after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq the price of oil began
to escalate in tandem with the escalation of war and political
turbulence in the Middle East. The fact that the rise in the price of
oil has followed the heightened insecurity in oil markets is neither
accidental nor a simple correlation; it represents a causality that
runs from the heightened insecurity in oil markets to the inflated
price of energy.