Well, I almost never go political in any of my ramblings (as a rule of thumb I try to avoid discussions of politics or religion), but I get the feeling that the world is ready to bust at the seems. Today there are reports that Israel will attack Iranian nuclear targets in an effort to prevent them from creating an Atom Bomb.These attacks are to be done with or without help and coordination from the U.S. and our lame duck president. "Still President Bush" as John Stewart of the Daily Show likes to call him, has nothing to say about this. I fear that the unstable and perhaps even psychotic leadership of Iran, who openly has promised to "wipe the stain of Israel off the map", will see this attack as an extension of the United States (oh, and guess who will have to back them up/bail them out if Iran retaliates? Yup, us).
Our country is still abuzz with the hope brought by the recent election, and like him or not, Obama will certainly take us in a new direction. One of his first pledged actions would be to withdraw from Iraq and turn over security to the people of the country (ready or not). He would presumably then turn his attention to Afghanistan. Makes sense in that there is a terrorist strong hold there, but we have heaps of political trouble with local ruling governments of the area, and you can bet our presence will not be welcomed with open arms given our recent track record.
All of this happens while the Russians are getting increasingly bold with their political and military moves. Putin, who should have been out of office by now, has managed to retain power and has all but restarted the cold war. Take the Georgia invasion for example (and I am talking about the country, not the southern state in the U.S. as I heard one very confused person say a few months back, "How can we just sit back and let Russia invade one of our states?").
Now Putin is parading around his navy and has set a Russian battle ship on course to run through the Panama Canal and to dock in a former U.S. naval base...posturing a bit? I think so. The so called experts maintian this is a harmless tit for tat due to our tisk tisking response to their invasion of a democratic nation in Georgia. I am a bit nervous about Putin becoming buddy buddy with Hugo Chavez, another political leader who might be a bit crazy and has no love loss for us.
Seems to me that the world gets itself into a big mess once every thirty to forty years (give or take). The Great War, 1914; WWII, 1939; Vietnam, 1965. (Vietnam technically started in 1950, but it was just a cival war until we started sending advisors in 1960. This war could have easily turned into WWIII with the tensions involved and the communist vs. democrat overtones that peaked interest in countries such as Russia and China). The point of all of this? I just wonder if we are not the bully hitting the bee hive with a stick with our global policies and allies as of late.
I saw a funny bumper sticker the other day that sort of sums up my opinion of recent American diplomacy: "Be nice to America, or we will bring Democracy to your country!"
Here's hoping we have learned a lesson or two and can avoid the third world war...
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