Did the preemptive war in Iraq cause oil prices to rise?

If a two-day tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico causes an increase in the price of oil, what is the effect of a six-year war in an oil-producing region?





Is it fair to say that the Bush Administration's bogus war is causing a large transfer of money from the American consumer to the Saudi elite - who then finance terrorism and invest in American corporations?





Did the preemptive war in Iraq cause oil prices to rise?
Yes, it probably did, as the destabilizing of the region worries investors and oil prospectors and the oil companies raise the price to avoid any future lessening of profit margins and keep shareholder confidence in their corporations high.





But that's just a part of the larger issue here. Oil companies will use any BS excuse they can to raise oil prices. They would have gone up regardless. Maybe not as high, maybe not as quickly, but they would have gone up.