Blood for Oil

Fr. Martin Fox makes what I think is an interesting point about the "No blood for oil" cliche. He points out that to the extent that oil is a geographically limited commodity which is vital to the world economy, that if a country or countries did in fact attempt to cut off the world oil supply this would probably be just grounds for war. Sure, it's an economic commodity, but it's arguably essential enough to our modern world economy that cutting it off would be on the level of refusing a region water.

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, Fr. Fox isn't saying that any specific recent situation would have justified a war for oil, nor that waging a war in order to assure lower prices through direct control of oil reserves would be morally justified, but rather that the concept of fighting for oil as a thing necessary for life is not necessarily immoral.