Not quite as much as you would think and not nearly as bad of a situation as what Sadam had planned for us.
Imagine what would have happened when the world was desparate enough to lift the sanctions against him. He would have had free reign to use his oil as leverage against the rest of the world. He could play a game of pool with the world economy. He only had control of about (%8 ??) of the worlds oild supply but that is more than enough to manipulate economies around the world. Imagine a dictator in the Middle East dictating your economy, if your kids can afford to go to school, if your kids can afford proper food. At least with the old school we have a mutual respect for each others greed. It helps keep things stable. You must have no clue how bad things could have been or how bad they will get in the future. I figure we bought more time (2015 approx).
Sure the price is higher than ever before and it will get higher but not as high as quickly as it could have gone. If you think prices are high now, I can see you are one of those who are going to really cry in the future.
We have only a few more oil fields to exploit in the world and the demand for energy is going up. Kazakhstan is one such place. We can't devlope it right now because it is a country essentially run by an "official mafia" when russia broke apart. In the religious vacume that was left, the muslims are moving into that area and telling people that they are muslim (good politics but not good spiritual message), including the mafia. These people don't even know what being a muslim is. This is a great recipe for a war in the future (2010 or 2015??). When the world needs oil, they will go for it. Then you are going to see some serious fireworks.
There may be some back door politics to get this oil. I would guess Israel will be the price.
You think it is bad now??? Hah! You'll look back on these as the good old days.
Hey,
I like some of the replies to this (Off) topic but should we all take some notes here.
Everyone seems to think that Bush invaded Iraq to line his pockets. He is from an Oil Family, true. But the Oil Business, just like any other business, will pass the cost of oil and gas on to the rest of us. His family will make money off of oil no matter what the price, and what Mr. Moore says. What may be said about this war is, it is a fight for your oil. Take some reposiblity here next time you go to a war protest driving your big SUV loaded with protest signs. Lets not be hipocrits.
Stablity in the Middle East means stable oil prices, which means a stable economy. If you look at the price of oil since the 60s and do come inflation calcs, oil costs the same today as it did then. If the cost of oil goes up too fast then we are looking at some serious problems. Like the cost of food? What do you think a loaf of bread would cost if fuel went up to $10 a gallon over night? Would your paycheck change fast enough to cover this? What about the rest of the world? We feed many nations. How does that food get there? OIL! What do you think would happen to the stability of the world if everyone was starving? What kind of wars would we have then? How many would die?
China is also comming online as a big energy consumer and they have 4.5 times more people than the U.S. What will happen when the average chinese citizen uses as much energy as the average U.S. citizen? Some serious problems are on the horizon. The war in Iraq is just a temporary fix that gives us a little more time.
Protesting Bush's actions is kind of like a spoiled child protesting cavities and then getting upset when their parents take away their candy. We all have a hand in it. Lets not give in the emotional play made by Mr. Moores movies because they do nothing for the problem. Lets see what we can do to take resposiblity.
Slashdot Mirror
Not quite as much as you would think and not nearly as bad of a situation as what Sadam had planned for us. Imagine what would have happened when the world was desparate enough to lift the sanctions against him. He would have had free reign to use his oil as leverage against the rest of the world. He could play a game of pool with the world economy. He only had control of about (%8 ??) of the worlds oild supply but that is more than enough to manipulate economies around the world. Imagine a dictator in the Middle East dictating your economy, if your kids can afford to go to school, if your kids can afford proper food. At least with the old school we have a mutual respect for each others greed. It helps keep things stable. You must have no clue how bad things could have been or how bad they will get in the future. I figure we bought more time (2015 approx). Sure the price is higher than ever before and it will get higher but not as high as quickly as it could have gone. If you think prices are high now, I can see you are one of those who are going to really cry in the future. We have only a few more oil fields to exploit in the world and the demand for energy is going up. Kazakhstan is one such place. We can't devlope it right now because it is a country essentially run by an "official mafia" when russia broke apart. In the religious vacume that was left, the muslims are moving into that area and telling people that they are muslim (good politics but not good spiritual message), including the mafia. These people don't even know what being a muslim is. This is a great recipe for a war in the future (2010 or 2015??). When the world needs oil, they will go for it. Then you are going to see some serious fireworks. There may be some back door politics to get this oil. I would guess Israel will be the price. You think it is bad now??? Hah! You'll look back on these as the good old days.
Hey, I like some of the replies to this (Off) topic but should we all take some notes here. Everyone seems to think that Bush invaded Iraq to line his pockets. He is from an Oil Family, true. But the Oil Business, just like any other business, will pass the cost of oil and gas on to the rest of us. His family will make money off of oil no matter what the price, and what Mr. Moore says. What may be said about this war is, it is a fight for your oil. Take some reposiblity here next time you go to a war protest driving your big SUV loaded with protest signs. Lets not be hipocrits. Stablity in the Middle East means stable oil prices, which means a stable economy. If you look at the price of oil since the 60s and do come inflation calcs, oil costs the same today as it did then. If the cost of oil goes up too fast then we are looking at some serious problems. Like the cost of food? What do you think a loaf of bread would cost if fuel went up to $10 a gallon over night? Would your paycheck change fast enough to cover this? What about the rest of the world? We feed many nations. How does that food get there? OIL! What do you think would happen to the stability of the world if everyone was starving? What kind of wars would we have then? How many would die? China is also comming online as a big energy consumer and they have 4.5 times more people than the U.S. What will happen when the average chinese citizen uses as much energy as the average U.S. citizen? Some serious problems are on the horizon. The war in Iraq is just a temporary fix that gives us a little more time. Protesting Bush's actions is kind of like a spoiled child protesting cavities and then getting upset when their parents take away their candy. We all have a hand in it. Lets not give in the emotional play made by Mr. Moores movies because they do nothing for the problem. Lets see what we can do to take resposiblity.