About OPEC and the invasion of Iraq, I found the following articles interesting:
Ehsan Ahrari, "The Oil Factor in an Attack on Iraq," August 7, 2002, <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DH07Ak02.html>. Dinkar Ayilavarapu, "Oil and War: Part 1: OPEC in the Line of Fire," October 1, 2002, <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DJ01Ak01.html>. Dinkar Ayilavarapu, "Oil and War: Part 2: Crude Assumptions," October 2, 2002, <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DJ02Ak01.html>. James Ridgeway, "Why OPEC Isn't Worried About the War," April 1, 2003, <http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0314/mondo1.php>.
N P Childs npchilds at shaw.ca, Mon Apr 12 18:42:42 PDT 2004:
>It was triggered by Japan building an empire on the eastern Pacific
>Rim that made war with the U.S. as the competing hegemon inevitable.
>The attack on Pearl Harbor was the trigger for the U.S., the
>Japanese high command and military government knew war with the U.S.
>was coming sooner or later, oil embargo or not.
For all I know, war between the US and Japan was coming sooner or later, but from the point of view of the Japanese elite, the oil embargo must have made them more motivated to "strike the first blow":
***** VJ Day: Remembering the Pacific War Stephen R. Shalom
The United States, along with Britain and the Netherlands, placed a total embargo on oil to Japan, leaving it with no alternative sources. To Japanese leaders war to seize its own supplies of oil seemed essential. But Japanese officials calculated that an attack on the oil- rich East Indies would necessarily involve them in a war with the United States. In this estimation they were correct, for U.S. officials had determined to go to Congress for a declaration of war not just if U.S. colonies were attacked, but if those of Britain or the Netherlands were either.45 In these circumstances Tokyo concluded that it made sense to try to strike the first blow.
<http://www.bcasnet.org/articlesandresources/article11_5.htm> ***** -- Yoshie
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