re: #194 Lupin

Trade wars have in the past often been the herald of real wars. Before 1914 the Germans became convinced that Britain and France would turn their Empires into protected areas restricting German exports. The decision by the US government to ban scrap metal being exported to Japan led to Pearl Harbour. A trade war is just like any war once the first shot is fired the law of unforseen consequences takes over.

It wasn’t the scrap metal so much as the blockade that kept fuel oil from getting to Japan; they have little or no fossil fuels of their own.