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To: Pelham
"You can’t embargo someone who is isolationist by choice." If you had read the link I provided you would have spared yourself the embarrassment of being wrong: "In 1940 Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to embargo all imports into China, including war supplies purchased from the U.S. This move prompted the United States to embargo all oil exports, leading the Imperial Japanese Navy to estimate that it had less than two years of bunker oil remaining and to support the existing plans to seize oil resources in the Dutch East Indies." They were fighting over resources, rather than trading them.
29 posted on 12/25/2009 4:48:47 PM PST by LifeComesFirst (http://rw-rebirth.blogspot.com/)
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To: LifeComesFirst

” “You can’t embargo someone who is isolationist by choice.” If you had read the link I provided you would have spared yourself the embarrassment of being wrong: “In 1940 Japan invaded French Indochina “

You know, if I didn’t already know you to be a dunce I would think that you were putting me on. Unfortunately you’re not. But let’s try this again, and see if I can make the explanation simpler for you. Maybe you’ll even learn a bit of history in the process, assuming that you are capable of learning, which has yet to be demonstrated.

Rabscuttle was making reference to an event some 85 years before FDR’s embargo and WWII. It was the opposite of an embargo. That means “not an embargo”, just to stress the point. That event was the forced opening of Japan’s ports by Commodore Peary in 1854.

This forced Japan to trade with the rest of the world, something it hadn’t been doing for 200 years. During those years of isolation Japan had posed no problem to its neighbors. Once Japan was roused from its splendid isolation thanks to a zealous imposition of trade, that all changed.

In appreciative imitation of Commodore Peary Japan first eyed Korea, forcing them to open themselves to Japanese trade. This led to conflict with China, and by 1894 Japan and China were at war. Japan sank the Chinese fleet and ended up with Korea and a chunk of Chinese territory as well.

Japan’s expansion brought it into conflict with Russia, which resulted in another war by 1905. Japan sank the Russian fleet, and basically established itself as the major power in the western Pacific. This led to a second war with China in 1937, and eventually the greater Pacific War that ended with atomic bombs.

So while it’s nice that you know about FDR and his oil embargo, maybe you should also consider that forcing Japan to open its markets didn’t turn out to be such a peaceful endeavor for the rest of the world. It was more like poking a nest of fire ants with a stick.


36 posted on 12/26/2009 12:05:21 AM PST by Pelham (ObamaCare, it comes with a toe tag)
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