[BradyLS]

But wouldn't Osama's strike, if successful, be merely transitory? Oil can be found all over the world and, if it came to it, we'd simply keep our domestic sources for ourselves. The wheels of government and industry would put a halt to enviro shennanigans if Osama found a way to permamnently cripple Middle East oil production. And this I doubt seriously. Saddam's scorched earth policy was repaired in record time. The Oil will flow. There's just too much of it for bin Laden to choke off for even a short period of time. IMO.

[Richard Axtell]

Yes, all true. My contention is that he would attempt it out of desperation, which seems to be indicated by this developing story. I doubt anyone could effectively destroy oil production world wide, but determined terrorist attacks might well play havoc with world oil prices, particularly if there were a few successful attacks against the petroleum distribution infrastructure outside of the Middle East. The "emotion" of the market, product hoarding, and other factors would cumulatively drive the price of oil to an unsustainable record high, then it would crash again... but during all this time, the World economy would suffer severely.