You guess wrong.
to which I responded urging you to google oil embargo.
Read all the way through that link and try to figure out why an oil embargo would never be feasible again. OPEC learned that putting the squeeze on the West ultimately slit their own throats and severely eroded the prominence of OPEC on the world stage by spurring new oil development and exploration in the West. An oil embargo is a two-edged sword and OPEC would be loathe to try and pull that little stunt again.
Right, but nobody is discussing whether it could be done again. I merely said there is a historical precedent for it. The US' oil imports from the middle east as a percentage of its total imports have gone down substantially in the last couple of decades so an oil embargo would not hurt _as much_. It would certainly still hurt.
So what's the point of citing historical precendent in this case if you agree it will likely never happen again? You seemed to be saying in your rebuttal to TheNewbie that OPEC could bring down our economy if it wanted to do so today and then exclaimed how you never tire of "being right." OPEC could not bring down our economy. Certainly it could cause some grief but it would hurt them far more than us. The west can adapt. For the most poart oil is all they have to keep their economic boat afloat.
Why must something be done? Nothing was done when Pakistan got the bomb or NK and they've not used them. The biggest reason Iran has to get nukes is because they need them desperately to secure their borders. With all the drum beating going to march in and start attacking them by the clowns here and elsewhere, I wouldn't blame them at all if they were trying to get nukes. I would to in their shoes.
*sigh* He said they cannot do anything and wouldn't threaten their own stability. I've shown that they can and have in the past. Further, I stated that an embargo may have less effect now based on how much the US relies on their oil, but obviously still a major effect could be had since, if we look at the news, we note that "escalations of tension" (not even a reduction in actual flow) has a precipitous effect on the market and prices go up. If OPEC shut down the pipes, oil costs would go up and that would hurt the economy. I never quantified to what extent because nobody can guess and if they do guess, they're lying. It would be more than $1 and less than the entire GDP.
The power projection available from multiple carrier battle groups is simply astonishing. We could reduce a continent to rubble and smoking ruins from just one of them, combined with a couple of our Tridents.
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