Back in the Iran-Iraq war....we provided military intelligence to, guess who, Saddam Hussein. Guess we hoped he'd stop helping international terrorist groups if we helped him win the war with Iran. I think many of us know what has happened since then. And the term for what has happened to us so many times....blowback. Stick your nose in others business and you'll eventually get slapped or punched. Americans have taken the "it won't happen to me" approach for many years. It is now catching up to us.
I would hardly say conservationists don't realize the importance of oil to our economy. In fact, a mainstay of the conservationist stance is the importance of oil to our economy, and that's why they are trying to change the economy to be less reliant upon oil (AFVs, alternative power, etc).
But you forgot about reason #3....our economy is down. Nothing like a war to pull up the economy.
b