You don't have to invade or bomb other countries, but no one will care about what you say if you do not have any ability to act, to back your talk. Talk is after all cheap. Carriers are not.
Witness carriers lazily loitering offshore problematic countries when negotioations are going on... Just showing the flag. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Europe has a number of imaginative and very painful ways to make our displeasure known that fall short of armed force. Of course, none of them are quite as profitable for the fatcats as war would be.
A weapon is an intimidating tool, but it is not a tool of intimidation. I don't think it's wise to make threats of armed force if one is not, ultimately, able and willing to enforce them. And we all know how well that worked out for the Americans...
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
