It's said that Napoleon opined that an "army marches on its stomach", and prior to real mechanized warfare, around the start of the 2nd World War, that was probably a very accurate statement. In the 1940s US General George Patton and German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel were among the first to recognize the new reality - An army is only as good as their fuel supply.
Not born till the 1960s I don't have firsthand accounts of life during WWII, but from stories my parents and grandparents told me, and books I've read on the subject, fuel was a precious commodity on the home front. And both of the men mentioned, geniuses on the battlefield, spent days trying to figure out how to save theirs and limit the supply if their enemy. At home, Americans paid high prices for their gas, but as importantly and perhaps more telling are the sacrifices made by American oil companies. Part of this was undoubtedly the companies' desire to help the war effort, but make no mistake the US government would not have hesitated for a second to make sure that the gas and oil needed would continue to flow.
Now flash forward a little more then half a century - The modern military is mechanized wonder. Almost all of the pictures you see from Iraq and Afghanistan show our fighting men and women either in vehicles or standing next to them. We're told again and again that we're "A Nation At War" (tm - Bush administration). Yet if you look at the recent business news oil companies are turning in quarter after quarter of record profits. I realize that considering everything our gas is still cheaper then most of the world, and while I'd rather not pay $3 a gallon, I'd be okay with it if it were a shared sacrifice. But it ain't. The administration spouts platitudes, but we're paying high prices for gas twice, once for our own vehicles, and then for the military's. I can't get away from the thought that we're seeing is only the tip of the iceberg so to speak, and that when placed in the context of "A Nation At War" TM the profits that we're hearing about aren't just obscene but un-American.