Reflecting on gas at $4.39 per gallon - brought to you by the Iraq war

"I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil." -  Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Sept. 2008  

It's true. I paid $4.39 for a gallon of gas today. That's the most I've ever paid for gas. And, as much as I have believed that the only thing that will stop people from buying gas-guzzlers and start buying more-efficient vehicles would be high prices, I'm still finding it hard to accept that gas is this expensive. And so suddenly. 

Just weeks ago, it was in the $3.50 range, which is still high, but nothing like this. Now it's going to take nearly $60 to fill up my Volkswagen Jetta. I can't even imagine what people who own big trucks and SUVs think of this latest price hike. 

So why are we paying so much for gas (and by extension, groceries and other products that are brought to us by trucks?) Well, it's the Iraq War of course...

"But Tom," some might ask, "isn't the Iraq war over? Didn't we pull out all of our troops over a year ago?" And I would answer this astute observation by saying "Yes, but..."

If you remember back to when the Iraq invasion started, it was said that we needed to pre-emptively invade to make sure Saddam Hussein wouldn't use (or sell) chemical or other "weapons of mass destruction" to other bad guys in the region, such as al Qaeda. Secretary of State Colin Powell even went to the United Nations to lay out the "evidence" we had that Saddam had such weapons. Of course, as we now know, there were never any such weapons. Oops.

But using unreliable and false hearsay as a guide, the United States decided to invade a sovereign country that had not attacked us and had been under the thumb of our "no-fly zone" for a decade. The theory was that we would take out Saddam with force that would "shock and awe" his armed forces and be greeted as liberators.

I'm still not quite sure exactly how broadcasting the exact timing of our invasion on CNN "shocked" Saddam, but that's what we heard at the time. As American tanks rolled north from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia into Iraq, you may recall it all seemed so easy - and you could watch it live on TV! (Remember the reporters lined up on the beach waiting for the U.S. Navy to land?). 

So it was true that we didn't encounter very much resistance. When we arrived in Baghdad, it took a few days and we started toppling Saddam's statue all over town. Saddam took off for his hiding place. And our macho president even "flew" in and "landed" on an aircraft carrier to announce "Mission Accomplished."

Well, very good then. Let's get Wal-Mart over here and start opening Super Centers, right? 

But, just as Saddam had said would happen, a very organized, strong and effective resistance movement got going. As the death toll of American soldiers rose, more and more innocent Iraqi civilians perished. Electricity and clean water became memories. Those who tried to help the Americans were either shot or were the victims of car bombs. Absolutely no weapons of mass destruction were ever found. And as months morphed into years, some of our troops apparently started to get bored as prison guards and decided to torture Iraqis we had captured, posing for grotesque photos that spread like wildfire on the Internet.  

More years went by. More Americans died. More Iraqis lost their homes and their lives. Schools and bridges that we built for Iraqis were attacked and destroyed by insurgents. All of our "allies" who had sent a smattering of troops left us behind. And then, after billions of American dollars were spent, the Iraqis themselves showed us the door. 

And the bombings continue to this day - even after we've been gone for more than a year.

I'm rehashing the Iraq war because it's very responsible for today's high gas prices and, to a great degree, the Great Recession. And frankly, I'm disappointed that more people can't see how waging this war did so much damage to our country. I can't even comprehend what this has all meant to our veterans and their families, so please know that this indictment of the Iraq war is not about them in the slightest. It's about the policy that put them in harm's way in the first place. 

At the start of the Iraq war in March of 2003, our nation's leaders believed that it would be easy to invade, take out Saddam, and gain access to the world's largest reserve of oil. That was their main reason for going into Iraq, and they even said it when someone bothered to ask the question. But it all went terribly wrong, didn't it? 

On March 27, 2003, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the following: "There’s a lot of money to pay for (the Iraq war). The oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years…We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon." 

Unfortunately, President Bush believed this and proceeded with the invasion. Vice President Cheney even said at the time, and continues to believe, that Iraq was somehow involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, even though no evidence of this has ever been brought forth. 

Simply put, the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 completely destabilized the Middle East by removing Saddam from power and placing tens of thousands of American troops in the region. As predicted, when we went into Iraq, oil prices went crazy. And the oil companies were given their rationale to raise prices at the pump - by a lot. Gas has gone up from when the war started (national average was $1.72 in February 2003) to today's price of $4.39.

In addition, the unprovoked American invasion royally messed up the regional power balance and unwittingly placed Iran, our worst enemy, in a great position. Thanks to our intervention in Iraq, the Iranians suddenly became the most powerful and influential player in the area. Not only did they arm and fund the insurgents in Iraq, they were able to speed up development of their nuclear program - because the U.S. was preoccupied next door - and in Afghanistan. 

This mess has also made it much easier for Assad in Syria to attack his own people (1.5 million Syrian refugees and still counting), because he knows the United States can't get the support it needs from allies or at the UN to take him out. And do you think we'll actually devote troops to Syria after what happened in Iraq? 

And what about the brave Iranians who want a change in leadership there? We stood by silently in 2009 as they protested their rigged election. And if the Iranian government starts becoming more active militarily or develops a nuclear weapon, do you think we could actually afford a war against Iran? Don't hold your breath.

So today we sit with gas at $4.39, nothing accomplished in Iraq (other than Saddam replaced by a crook), and the Iranians and Syrians running the show in the Middle East.

Well done, George W. Bush. Well done, indeed.