About a year ago, when the Bush Administration first began ratcheting up the volume on a likely invasion of Iraq, I had serious reservations about the whole thing. While I did view Saddam as a tyrant, I felt that the status quo was perfectly fine. US and British planes had been enforcing the no-fly zones since after the first Gulf war. If necessary, surgical strikes could destroy any potential WMD manufacturing sites. The case for war, as it was presented over the coming months, was just too weak and ambiguous. The Administration's arguments in favor of an invasion only served to reinforce my reservations.
Then came the protests, and one of the chief arguments being presented in opposition to the war was that it was all about obtaining a supply of cheap oil.
Well, upon hearing that, my mind was quickly made up for me. If the coming conflict was going to about nothing more than being able to buy cheaper gasoline, I was 100% behind my President.
So when the price of gas went UP at the very beginning of the war, I was startled, but I accepted it as being caused by the initial uncertainty over how the coming conflict was going to unfold.
And when Baghdad finally fell on April 9, I was confident that I would soon be paying 99 cents for a gallon of premium unleaded.
Instead the prices continued to rise. By the end of August it had topped two bucks in some areas of the country.
Needless to say, I now feel horribly betrayed. If we didn't invade Iraq, drop thousands of bombs, and kill all those people for the benefit of cheap fuel for our SUV's, then just what the hell was it all about?