"But the world isn't like that"

[Terrance]

Mark Wright AIA wrote:
> To elaborate:
> I have a dim recollection that the Axis powers in WWII were motivated
> in part by oil -- they didn't have control of enough oil to fuel both
> their domestic industries and their military. Germany had lots of coal
> of its own but no oil and had to devote ingenuity and extra cash to
> producing liquid fuels from solid coal. Japan hadn't enough of either
> coal or oil to fuel its brand new industrializing economy. Each was
> reliant upon foreign oil sources, and resented paying the producers.
> And resented the control over their actions that this supply/demand
> relationship implied. Japan's aggressive colonial wars, which preceded
> the attack on the US, where aimed at control of energy supplies.
> 
> Is this true?

I think it is.  Who would have imagined that Japan and Germany,
aggressive Johnny-come-latelys to industrialization, would wage war on
the world, be defeated and "catch-up" (an economic  theory I like) with
US support and build two of the most powerful economies in the world w/o
any oil? Now, Germany is back together again and Japan is caught in a
political/cultural deadlock. Neither can afford to sit back and let Iraq
and terrorists destroy what they have built. 

Another view of where the sun is setting--in the East

http://www.businessweek.com/1998/35/b3593081.htm

What goes up
must come down
spinning wheel
round and round
talk about decline 
and the setting sun
watch out for the sniper's indiscriminate gun