Are gas prices high because of few refineries;oil futures speculators;Hugo Chavez;OPEC pricing; or Iraq War?

Yes, our leaders are lying incompetents, but they are not the reason gas prices are so high. And although I do believe that there need to be more refinaries it's really the simple law of supply and demand that is keeping gas prices high. With the economic explosions that we're seeing espescially in China, India, and Eastern Europe more people and businesses are competing for a finite resource. My prediction is that in upcoming years the world will most certainly see more wars as well as higher fuel prices as competition become more stiff. I'd also like to add that the Iraq War is not a primary reason (I will concede that it doesn't help) for the high price of fuel. If anything the United States is in Iraq in attempt to try and secure a piece of the "oil pie" so to speak. There are many that disagree with me here, but for the record there has been no war in the history of civilization that HASN'T been directly tracable back to the want of money and resources. Afterall, there are heartless dictators the world over. Why aren't we trying to "spread democracy" to them?