El Mundo es Loco

The world is a crazy place. I don't think that many would disagree...and I don't care if they do. The world is at war....with itself. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), having spent a great deal of time travelling, once wrote "I have seen the world...and it hates each other". I know what he meant.

Today we are dealing with the consequences of centuries that have preceded us. The Middle East, colonized by the West since the Roman Empire, exploited by the Europeans since the 11th century for economic plunder and religious aspirations, and deemed a necessity for the industrial nations since the fuel of production and progress changed from coal to petroleum, is the focus of modern turmoil.

Korea, isolated and fearful, is not the real danger. Asia, as funny as it may seem, is quite capable of taking care of itself. The Chinese and Japanese, the Koreans, Indonesians and Australians are all quite capable of finding a common ground. This is my opinion.

The Middle East is the problem that will not go away. The danger now is that the present situation, the destruction of Lebanon by the Israelis, will unite the factions of Islam, the Shia and the Sunni, and give them a common ground upon which they can forget their historical differences and combine their efforts to "liberate" Islam from the "Satanic" influences of the Crusaders that have kept them from re-establishing the caliphate for a very long time.

In Iraq the historical differences between the Sunni and Shia Muslims defines and separates the various militant groups operating there. But, as regards Israel, these differences seem to dissipate in the face of a common enemy. Iran (Shia) and Siria (Sunni) both support the war against Israel. They supply both arms and money, as do many other factions in the Middle East, to the continued conflict with Israel. Since the birth of Israel as a modern state there has been one idea that unites the fractious Muslim world: Israel's ultimate destruction and annihilation.

The Middle East, and all it's problems, will not simply disappear into a sunset of "Democracy". It is foolish to think this way...and it will always cost lives. Perhaps a Caliphate is not such a bad idea. A united Islamic empire, with nuclear technology, is certainly a frightening prospect. But we have faced such prospects before. The cold-war of the last century kept the world on the brink of annihilation, but none of the nuclear powers dared take us over that edge. Can we expect the same restraint from an Islamic state built on the cult of martyrdom? This is an interesting question.

Unless the Western powers are willing to emulate Julius Caesar 's "pacification" of Gaul, and are capable of the wholesale massacres and destructions of tribes and peoples and cultures and cities, then perhaps a restructuring of the Middle East is in order. This happened after the first world war with the demise of the Otoman Empire. The Western powers divided the Middle East between themselves in order to control the oil reserves and insure continuity of supply to their ever hungry and expanding economies.

So I suggest this:

1:Give Israel all the support it needs to insure it's integrity and security.

2:Develope new sources and types of energy for the Western economies.

3: Let Islam evolve as it wishes and deal with them. Under a Caliphate, Sunni or Shia, the enemy is defined and culpable.

Meanwhile let's all watch the world...like Samuel Clemens...and wonder why it hates each other.