by Jack
The middle east and many parts of North Africa are on fire. There is a hot war with Muslim insurgents in Yemen, Chad, Niger, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, Iraq and Syria. Russians have allowed Putin to assume the role of dictator and trample their Constitution. Russia hasn’t seen a megalomaniac like him since Stalin. Putin’s ambitions to reconstitute the USSR is laughed at by many, but the folks in the Ukraine aren’t laughing. They thought they had a deal with US to back them up in exchange for the destruction of Soviet nukes, but Obama reneged. Putin is free to threaten his neighbors and in the case of Ukraine, to steal territory.
Poverty stricken North Korea has made starvation part of the culture, although the Army and bureaucrats eat pretty well. Despite their poverty they still maintain a sizeable military, although much of it too old to be considerate a serious threat if the North and South resumed their war. Although, they have still have a fair number modern jets, small craft and tanks, it’s just not enough to guarantee them a victory over the South. Their heyday of peak military performance came and went about 20 years ago. Thus the desires of the PRNK to take South Korea by force is fading almost as fast as their tanks are rusting in place.
Iran is peering over its border into Iraq and they don’t like what they see. Iraq is divided into two camps, Sunni and Shia and it may eventually have to partition itself accordingly if there is to be peace. However, ISIS has complicated and exacerbated (if that’s possible) the religious insanity. ISIS is well know for its brutality, but beheadings, rape, kidnapping and torture is not uncommon in Iraq no matter who is waging war. It exists in lowly Shia militias, right up the chain into Iraq’s military. There is considerably brutality coming from tribal warlords that fight on both sides, Shia and Sunni. What a mess.
If that wasn’t enough the Arab spring movement seems to be ushering in a whole new generation that demands less religion, less government and more freedom, and that’s great, but unfortunately it’s not all reform and warmth. The uprising has created quite a bit of chaos and that’s led to some openings for some very bad characters. Political chaos in that region is like a welcome mat for radical Islam, as evidence by this ISIS phenomena. There are so many new Muslim terror groups that have popped up in the middle east now you almost need a score card to keep up. Then there’s the old terrorists, still formidable, like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine. Of course both are supported by Iran with weapons and are used to fight a proxy war against Israel. This is why the GOP wanted Iran to stop exporting terrorism before they got an agreement on the nuclear reactor.
Now let’s move over to North America. Just as the Berlin Wall fell so unexpectedly, so has Americas economic dominance. Imagine China is the #1 economic powerhouse in the word right now! I never expected them to move so fast. Our technology is still #1, but our industrial might has all but died on the vine. Too many of our corporations have been moved to China. But, it’s not just America that has lost factories to China, so has Europe. A good deal of their manufacturing went the same direction as ours. They were lured away by cheap labor, low taxes, no unions, and the virtual guarantee of high profits.
President Obama has had 8 years to stem the exodus of business and jobs, but he’s done next to nothing. This guy has all the leadership skills of Nero…. and a personal budget to match. Thanks to his foreign policy, or lack thereof, we now have acute trade deficits that will only get. His handling of our economy has more in debt than the nation is worth.
Without US leadership there been a total lack of unity among the besieged economies. Europe is suffering from an aging population that has been caused them to rethink their lavish entitlement system. The old socialist pyramid scheme only works when there are more workers replacing the retiring workers. When the reverse happens the socialist safety net vanishes faster than you can say, “Don’t loan money to Greece.”
South America has banked on North America for most of their prosperity. They’re trying to move ahead and they are in need of almost everything. Their natural resources are either dwindling or exhausted or polluted. They have shortages in almost everything except political corruption and they have that in abundance! Then again, this is where the term “banana republic” originated. They are piss poor countries with exploding piss poor population that would love to come to America and many do. South America and Central America is where many generations have grown up believing that corruption on every level is the way the world works. They’ve been exporting that into the USA in abundance too, but we didn’t need their help, our far left has been doing quite well at corrupting.
Narco-terrorists have certainly made their mark on Latin America and cornered vast amounts of wealth. Today, you can’t even say the word Columbia without thinking of cocaine and the violent drug trade. Mix this lucrative trade with leftist radicals like the Shining Path in El Salvador, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC, even Iran is meddling in Latin America. They have a presence visa vi with Hezbollah and their relationship with Venezuela. Money, drugs and fanaticism… good ingredients for a revolution.
No matter where you look, there’s more trouble and almost no American presence. This marshal seems to be on leave and the drunken cowboys are shooting up the town. Religious wars, turf wars, drug wars, poverty wars, ethnic wars, tribal wars and even economic wars!
This is the new violent world – bold and stupid. A bad combination if one had a bet on mankind living another 10,000 years.
PS As a payoff of Obama’s treaty with Iran Russia has decided to sell them a powerful missile air-defense system and they are proposing to sell them ballistic missiles.
Do you feel any safer now than before the “Community Leader”, “Constitution Expert”, “I Will Fundamentally Transform America”, Marxist lunatic POTUS?
Great similarity between Obumble and Putin. Both are drunk on their own power, both lie to their own people, and both trample their respective Constitutions.
While the threats you mention are very real, it is still important to note that the world is, on the whole, less violent today than at any point in history:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2014/12/the_world_is_not_falling_apart_the_trend_lines_reveal_an_increasingly_peaceful.html
Chris, that statistic doesn’t seem right, but for now lets say it is true. The worst part about all these brush fire wars is the potential for using a weapon of mass destruction on the US. Today’s weapons are more lethal than any other time in history and it won’t be long before a terrorist groups gets a chemical, biological or nuclear weapon.
Motive, ability and opportunity…the key ingredients to a crime.
Chris: “less violent today than at any point in history”
That’s a ridiculous statement, but considering you got it from Slate explains it.
Tell the Christians, Jew and Muslims being killed every day it’s less violent today than at any point in history.
Christian Holocaust:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=christian+holocaust+glenn+beck&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=992ABE1B68FEA46FAFEA992ABE1B68FEA46FAFEA
Peggy: “Tell the Christians, Jew and Muslims being killed every day it’s less violent today than at any point in history.”
This is an entirely emotional argument, not one based on data. Click the link–there is actual data there. People are less likely to die a violent death today than at any point in human history. That is a fact; research the data yourself if you don’t trust Slate. The reason you percieve the world to be more violent today is because the violence that does occur is more amplified due to non-stop media coverage.
Jack, you have a point that there is definitely the potential for more damage than ever before due to nuclear weapons.
Yes, Peggy, Chris is correct. Yours is an emotional argument. Like Chris has never made one, for crying out loud. Peggy, your “emotional argument” is perfectly valid, and quite poignant. It strikes deep into the bloodless heart of Chris who is more interested in “winning” a debate and supporting anything that props up his world view and political aggenda than he is in direct, honest humanity.
Decades ago my Probability and Statistics professor repeated that age old axiom (or clishe’), “There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.” I doubt the vaulted, tower of academia English Major Chris ever got beyond simple math and can’t tell the difference.
What does that quote mean, Peggy? It means that statistics can easily fall below the category of “damn lies” if not examined with a skeptical eye.
With limited resources, I make one such examination, which I think is completely obvious, in the Post Scripts “Where is the World Headed?” post. Scroll down.
Don’t let the self-aggrandizing clown piss on you Peggy, you are far more of a compassionate and thoughtful person than he will ever be.
You may be right Chris that this is an emotional issue and it may be because we are getting the information almost as it’s happening instead of weeks and even months after, as in the past.
Seeing children as they die of Sarin gas in Syria last year does have a different affect on us than did the discovery of gas chambers in concentration camps at the end of WWII. Everyone has said, “Never again,” yet here we are over a year later after the Syria gassing and nothing has been done to stop this from happening again.
Only hundreds died in Syria not millions, this time. Will we again do nothing like we did with the Jews and others or will we take the steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again?
60 Minutes on CBS tonight covered the Sarin gassing in Syria. Warning, disturbing video.
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/brutal-images-of-a-sarin-gas-attack-in-syria/
I also found upsetting hearing 12 Libya Christians were thrown overboard by Muslims who demanded the Christians stop praying.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/african-christian-migrants-said-thrown-overboard-because-of-their-faith/
And the news that 700 more Libya refugees have drowned when their ship sank trying to flee for their lives.
Hundreds drown off Libya, EU leaders forced to reconsider migrant crisis:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/19/uk-europe-migrants-idUKKBN0NA07220150419?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
So, when the stats come in for the times we are in now will they be higher or lower? When will the count begin and end? Last year or ten years ago? Will it end this year or five years from now?
My point is I don’t see how one can say it is less violent today than at any time in history when all of the facts aren’t in yet. Easy to do with history, but not for the present until the present too is history.
Soon to be labeled racist bigotry by the usual “progressive” fools …
It isn’t “Islamophobia” when they are really trying to kill you —
http://www.barenakedislam.com/2015/04/21/uk-muslims-plead-not-guilty-to-setting-up-a-stand-on-oxford-street-in-london-to-hand-out-pro-isis-islamic-state-leaflets-to-shoppers/