Two nations and their allies fought a tremendous war over oil.

One of them was militaristic and aggressive. The other was more interested in building their economy.

It started when the militaristic nation attacked a weaker, backwards nation that could barely defend herself. The militant nation turned their war machine on the weaker nation, slaughtering her population and looting her resources.

Horrified by the attack on a nation that could barely defend herself, the economic powerhouse placed an oil embargo on the militant nation- starving her war machine of vital fuel and dooming her military expansion. The militant nation was left with only a year and a half of oil reserves.

The militant nation did the only thing that she knew how to do within their code of honor: a year later she launched a horrific attack on the economic powerhouse and seized the oil resources that her military machine needed to operate.

Does this sound familiar? Am I talking about Iraq, Iran or the United States?

Of course not. The militant nation was Imperial Japan. The economic powerhouse was the United States. The backwards victim was China. The rest was a small affair called World War II in the Pacific in which millions died in combat, starvation and disease.

That's the funny thing about history. Nobody pays attention to it and we end up at the same dance about once every fifty years or so.

It is about that time.