[Looking for Diogenes]

In fact, give me sustained $10-a-barrel oil and I'll give you revolutions from Iran to Saudi Arabia, and throw in Venezuela.

Give us $10 a barrel oil and you also can kiss American domestic oil production goodbye.

[Tony in Hawaii]

Six bucks a barrell would really mess up the American oil industry, wouldn't it? Getting it down to $15 would be nice, though.

[Shermy]

Wait a minute...Thomas Friedman is now an expert on oil? Is he starting to cut through the cast of characters in the drama posed by the standard media? And what does this say about the status of his friendship with Prince Abdullah, his cohort in proferring the ever-changing "Saudi/New York Times Peace Plan"?

Very interesting.

I doubt Nigeria, anyone would not exploit a high oil price...and scuds are very unlikely to knock out oil production...better the Iraqi plan to individually torch all the wells in Kuwait in 1991.

But many points recognized, for example, the sanctions benefit facts. Coming from a media poohbah, quite surprising.

A free(r) Iraq would boost production. They may play the OPEC game a little, but they'll want all their quotas back that the Saudis have usurped for 10 years. They may also ask for 10 years of extra benefits to make up for it all. Or they could just open the pumps. Interesting to see.

Brings to mind ... just how does the US payback or "fight a war" against Saudi Arabia? Indirectly, this could be one way...

[gcruse]

If the decision to go to war is based on whether or not you can afford it, then you should not be going to war.

[Waco]

The goal is FREE Iraq oil. For USA to use as long as it takes to pay for this WAR, the WTC, etal SEVERAL times over. Betcha

[WellsFargo94]

The title should read $15 or $30. The prices aren't going to fluctuate to the degree that Friedman states, because the non-OPEC nations have a stake at making some money and landing new markets, and the OPEC crowd has never let politics get in the way of making money. So either way oil production will self-adjust. President Bush has negotiated hard with non-OPEC nations in the last year.

Does Friedman want to cause panic or is the libral freak just trying to change the wide spread support of President Bush and the Republicans to make way for his Democratic friends running for office?

[razorback-bert]

in short order ramp up its oil production to its long-sought capacity of five million barrels a day

Not likely, they have screwed up the oil fields.