Japan intended the attack Attack as a preventive Preventing_or_letting action to keep the United States Pacific Fleet from interfering Hindering with its planned Arranging military actions in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom , the Netherlands , and the United States .

The exercise was solely intended to establish Creating preventive measures and response strategies by increasing Cause_change_of_position_on_a_scale governmental and public awareness of the magnitude and potential of such a threat posed Causation by biological weapons .

On 24 August , Breivik was convicted as charged Judgment_communication and sentenced Rewards_and_punishments to 21 years of preventive detention in prison Prison , the maximum sentence Rewards_and_punishments allowed in Norway .

Operation Opera , and related Israeli government statements following it , established Creating the Begin Doctrine , which explicitly stated Statement the strike was not an anomaly , but instead “ a precedent for every future government in Israel. ” Israel 's counter-proliferation preventive strike added Cause_to_be_included another dimension to their existing policy of deliberate ambiguity , as it related to the nuclear capability of other states in the region .

The destruction Destroying of `` Osirak '' has been cited Writing as an example of a preventive strike in contemporary scholarship on international law .

It was also the first instance of a preventive attack Attack on a nuclear reactor , the intent of which was to forestall the development of a nuclear weapon .