You've used all your own oil (excluding those Alaskan fields), so now it's time to resort to armed robbery? While constantly bitching and moaning about how the UN and all your allies fail to support the noble cause?
(Before you flame; yes, I am referring to Iraq - but no, I do not feel sorry for Saddam, he should have been killed 15 years ago when the opportunity was there. I do support the fact that my own country has soldiers there, when the situation is as it is. I am however sceptical about how wisely this whole thing was handled from the beginning.)
It's a free market out there. Supply and demand and all that. It's not like the Arab world has a monopoly, like they almost had in the early 70s. From memory I think the list of the five largest oil exporters in the world is Saudi Arabia, Norway, Russia, Venezuela and Mexico, in that order.
No, alternatives are not practical.
Practical or not, it's the only way. Oil is not a renewable resource. Well, it is but most of us would find 100 million years a bit long to wait. If the Chinese decide they all want cars, and they will as soon as they can afford to, the supplies will not last that long.
I'm not all that worried. A hundred years ago the experts were worried that the growing cities would be buried under hundreds of feet of horse dung as a result of the increased traffic. They were also worried that the depletion of the guano reserves in Chile would lead to world wide famine. Solutions have a way of popping up when they are needed. Alternatives to oil will have to be found in the next few decades. I think alternatives will be practical as soon as they have to be.
BTW, did you notice that my country is the second largest oil exporter in the world? Wanna know what gas costs here? Six dollars a gallon. ($6, I didn't make a conversion error.) That's not supply and demand, that's tax. Do we complain? Yes, but it's not really a big thing. Does that mean we can afford it? Yes. Gas is probably cheaper now than it has ever been compared to salaries and other prices. It's probably the same in the US, that most people have more money and more financial freedom now than ever before. $3, $6, $10 - I don't think it's the end of the world, at least not as long as the oil price reflects other prices and the increase in people's available income.