Act of War?

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has recently stated that he wants to see oil at $170/barrel (or was it $190/barrel?) since at that price he believes the economy of the United States will fail. He's been doing a good job of raising the price of oil so far. Only time will tell just how high it'll go. But is it an Act of War?.

Some will argue that the US is an empire. Not a military empire, but a financial empire with a military arm. It makes sense that one would attack a financial entity with a financial weapon.

Then I see stuff like this and this and wonder if the guy knows what he's talking about or if he's just spouting inflammatory speech.

I suspect that while the US does have the "strongest economy in the world" it does have a fair share of vulnerabilities. I also suspect that the little economies, like those found in Europe, will suffer far more than ours.

If oil goes high enough that we start to suffer, and I'm talking more than paying a few more bucks at the pump, that countries with Arms (and that's a capital "A") and armies will be hurting. I'm guessing that the French will be threatening to do something (again) and the Whermacht will shake the dust off it's boots and cause some to argue that Clauswitz is still applicable.

So I wonder how far Iran has to go with it's financial attacks for one to be considered an act of war. I've read that WWI was fought because the Brits were loosing ground to the German colonization of the New World and the Brits figured they'd have the advantage in a military conflict since they didn't like the competition in a financial/territorial one. It don't know how true that is, but it does make one think and wonder about the parallels today.

Is a financial attack an act of war? Probably depends on who the President/Chancellor/Prime Minister/King is.