It's even more analogous to the present. Hitler thought the war would last at best a year and he could run his tanks on "synthetic" oil which is just the old name for shale oil. When Germany couldn't produce enough of it they had to go after the real thing.

I've spent months trying to get you to lay off "White Empire". Ironically, we are at a time where much of what you wrote is true. I doubt there are more than a handful of blacks in the oil business in the U.S. I don't want to stir up that stuff again, but I must give you your due ;)

There is plenty of gas and oil to go around. To me it's a cime against humanity that Sri Lanka must turn away ships with oil and gas. The West pushed Sri Lanka into doing more organic farming, where is the West now when Sri Lanka tried to be a good global neighbor?

Same thing for textiles. I bet I walk by people every day who are wearing someting partly made in Sri Lanka. We can't send a least one tanker of oil?

How much tech did we sell for those hydroelectric projects? I bet a fair amount.

Instead of the West giving money to Sri Lanka to pay back the Chinese Sri Lanka will probably end up with a Chinese base. That might be attacked by India or the U.S. If so, that could have been avoided.

The Sri Lankans will sell food and services to both. I hope they make a lot of money.