The real story is how did the price of diesel quadruple, (or more), in 3 or 4 years? It's truly insane and unprecedented in modern times. The basic demand went up a few percent in that time. It has and will lead to the worst economic times in decades. Here is the real story of current inflation as a result, which will get worse:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080814/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy
The question I've had for the last few years is how much diesel and jet fuel has been wasted, (and paid for at outrageous rates by U.S. taxpayers), in Iraq? It has to be a huge amount for a military presence that size 8k miles away for 5+ years, but is it significant in terms of world consumption? Is it more than a blip? The reason I wonder, besides being enraged at the waste and stupidity, is that a war is one of the few scenarios where a significant amount of EXTRA fuel would be burned in the world, aside from the usual # of planes/trains/trucks/cars/ships that operate every day across the globe.
The true cost of the bungled invasion of Iraq based on false information may never be fully assessed, but if you add the additional cost of a barrel of oil for the last 5 years, (experts for years have put it at ~$20/barrel), due to the "fear of interruption of supply", (not to be confused with ACTUAL interruption of supply), the weakening of the U.S. dollar due to record-smashing deficits to finance Iraq causing oil prices to skyrocket and commodities in general to spike like crazy, (food prices through the roof), the amount of $$ that has been funneled from consumers' wallets into the coffers of big oil and U.S. govt. war contractors like Halliburton and KBR is mind-boggling. All in a few short years. Did Bush plan it like this? No, he's too stupid. His ineptitude turned what was supposed to be a little corporatist beer-bash worth a few 100 billion into the wrecking of the world economy.
It's sometimes hard for me to remember the good old days, no, I'm not talking about the 1950s or '60s. I'm talking about the late 1990s when the U.S. and world economy was the best it had ever been in history, peace was breaking-out as a result world-wide and absolutely anything seemed possible. The overall mood was extremely optimistic and buying race cars and ski boats made sense for the average American. Jobs were actually being created in the U.S., and not just in the repo/foreclosure business. Everything from energy to housing seemed cheap, and a trip to Europe next week was a big, "why not?" for most people I know. Every day had a new story in the news about American's exploding wealth and the disposable income of baby-boomers.
And as a ready-made response to the asshats who will accuse me of "being negative", I'm over it. History has happened. I've just switched to survival-mode like most Americans, canceled travel plans and down-sized vehicles and other planned purchases. It is what it is, but let's call a ball a ball and a strike a strike. The bartender at any pub in the land can tell you which way the wind blows. It's been a tragedy.
