The Protracted Conflict

The oil war, like most wars, is a fairly intricate compound. Qualitative analysis discloses the following among its constituent elements:

1. Arabs v. Israel. Officially this is the content of the oil war. The Arab nations (or “Arab nation,” as Arabs prefer) launched their oil weapon, their spokesmen declare, in order to achieve the objective of their military operations by a strategy of indirect approach. By the oil boycott and selective oil embargo, and by threats of still more extreme applications of their novel weapon system, they will compel the industrialized, oil-dependent Western nations and Japan to compel the Israelis to withdraw behind the 1948-67 borders. This strategy, like all strategies, has flaws, but itisbyno means irrational. To call it “blackmail” is sour grapes, though perhaps a useful propaganda device in countering it.

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James Burnham

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The oil war, like most wars, is a fairly intricate compound. Qualitative analysis discloses the following among its constituent elements:

1. Arabs v. Israel. Officially this is the content of the oil war. The Arab nations (or “Arab nation,” as Arabs prefer) launched their oil weapon, their spokesmen declare, in order to achieve the objective of their military operations by a strategy of indirect approach. By the oil boycott and selective oil embargo, and by threats of still more extreme applications of their novel weapon system, they will compel the industrialized, oil-dependent Western nations and Japan to compel the Israelis to withdraw behind the 1948-67 borders. This strategy, like all strategies, has flaws, but itisbyno means irrational. To call it “blackmail” is sour grapes, though perhaps a useful propaganda device in countering it.