Two sixty-four a gallon

Monday morning I stopped for gas on the way to work.

The sun's glare was reflecting off the pump's display. The man pumping gas next to me called out, "Shielding your eyes from the sun or from the prices?"

My primary concern was getting enough gas in the tank to get to work, so I hadn't noticed that it was costing me $2.64 per gallon. $2.64! That is probably the most I've ever paid for gas.

"Write your congressman!" the man shouted at me.

"What for?" I asked. I mean, what am I supposed to say? Ms. Congresswoman, my gas costs too much...

The high price of gasoline is the result of conditions that have been years in the making. There are concerns that we are nearing peak global oil production, which constrains supply. Then there is rapidly increasing demand in the developing world. Anyone who's taken ECON-101 should know that this combination results in higher prices.

The little exchange I had at the gas station made me think back a few years to the runup to the Iraq War. Of course, at that time the government was talking about WMD's as the reason to go to war. But around the water cooler I heard a couple of other reasons.

First, ousting Saddam will give us greater access to Iraqi oil. This will make the supply more reliable, keeping prices stable.

Second, war is good for the economy! In the summer of 2002, we were in the midst of a shallow, but prolonged, recession, and 401(k) balances were in free fall. Nothing like a good war to firm up those investments!

I never heard anyone rebut these arguments. I never did, but I should have. In war, people die. If cheap gas and rising equity prices come with this hidden human cost attached, it's not worth it. On the second point, some people might feel vindicated, but on the first, they've been proven wrong -- oil is much more expensive today. And if proponents of Peak Oil Theory are correct, high oil prices are here to stay, and Iraqi oil won't do anything to change that.