There has not been much in terms of consumption that has helped prices skyrocket. The only consumption factor pushing prices un-related to 9/11 or US invasion of Iraq is the Chinese equation; a dramatic rise in oil consumption in China. Otherwise, oil prices have risen only because of the terrorist threats and disruption in future oil supply caused by the situation in Iraq.

The effects of this dramatic rise if of course going to have repercussions world-wide. The US is already facing the adverse effects. Unfortunately, the ability of the developed nations to sustain and overcome the ill effects of the rise in oil process is much better than ours where all our development efforts could face extremely serious problems unless oil price stabilises at an acceptable level. Our future thus depend on US winning this war on terrorism and win it fast.

But who is winning this war on terror and when will this war end? After 9/11 , President Bush's first comment was to "smoke 'em out" wherever they may be hiding. He thus led the US , with UN sanction into Afghanistan, in chase of Osama bin Laden and then without UN sanction, into Iraq , hoping to end this war on terrorism without any delay and without anyone's help, mistakenly assuming terrorists and dictators are the same breed which they are not as proven in Iraq, and in the process turning the world into the mess that the terrorists had hoped in the first instance to do. Mr. Bush has kept part of his promise for in the pursuit he has set the world in smoke; but only as a smoke screen for the terrorists who, while on the run in Afghanistan and out of their wits, were given a safe haven in Iraq where they are now having a gala, the US having removed for them from the scene their arch enemy, Mr. Saddam Hussein.

So unfortunately, it is the terrorists who are winning, thanks to the US handling of the war of terrorism.