The threat of oil jihad

..while terrorist attacks may cause temporary spikes in the price of oil, lasting price increases are the consequence of armed conflict, embargoes and basic economics. The big increases in the price of oil have come from the 1973 Arab oil embargo, the Iranian revolution, Iraq`s invasion of Kuwait, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and a series of deliberate cuts in production to raise prices.

The anxiety that keeps oil prices high today and sends them soaring at each new worrisome headline is driven not by fears of a single terrorist attack, but rather by growing pressure on global supplies of readily accessible crude and nightmare scenarios that envision the Persian Gulf turned into a war zone. This could happen in one of several ways.

Monsters and Critics