WORLD AT WAR-The last time we were in a Great Depression, we were understandably preoccupied and absorbed in our own economic and domestic affairs. And, like the 1930's, we were and are sick and tired of the horrors of war, and of the savageries of the outside world--both the nightmares of World War I, and the nightmares of Iraq/Afghanistan, were and are just too fresh in our memories for us to care about the new nightmares occurring abroad.
Yet those nightmares then and those nightmares now are not going away, try as we might want to shut them out.
The slaughter of the Yazidis and other tribes in Iraq are emblematic of our nation's current approach to "over there". As with the Boko Haram in Nigeria, it's hard to get worked up about groups of people whose names we can't even pronounce.
As for the Christians being slaughtered in Syria, Iraq and Pakistan? Maybe they ought to move...but the Crusades are over, in the eyes of the West--unless, of course, the local Christians start fighting back.
After all, look how so much of the West took umbrage when the Israelis started fighting back after 1948.
And if Hamas had succeeded in their plans to attack Israeli schools and civilian centers via their tunnels (you know, those tunnels built with so much of the money that international sources thought was going towards food, health and infrastructure in Gaza?), would the world have blamed Hamas or the Israelis?
(By the way, does anyone reading this know or even care about the Rosh Hashanah plans to kidnap and kill Israeli children and other civilians, or is it just the "Jewish Media" and "brainwashed American Jews" like me?
And do the riots such as those that recently attacked Jewish businesses in Paris and that are forcing Jews to flee France constitute events that hit a little too close to home, or is it just the "Jewish Media" and "brainwashed American Jews" like me?)
So as the Islamist (not Muslim but Islamist--and yes, there's a HUGE difference!) armies effectively create wannabe-caliphates in Libya, northern Syria and northern Iraq, and increasing violence and disruption is being perpetrated in Africa and Latin America (notice how more refugees are entering the U.S. not just for economic benefits but to avoid being killed?), when DO we conclude that we're careening towards World War III?
Economic suffering and misery is certainly playing a role, and the U.S. government has for years and decades been guilty of creating and empowering a "1%" that is parasiting off the ordinary American and non-American worker.
Unfortunately, too few Americans connected the dots and recognized that both the Occupy (dominated by Democrats) and Tea Party (dominated by Republicans) had a whole lot of similarities, and now we live in an America where BOTH President Bush's and President Obama's policies have disempowered the majority of Americans while empowering an ever-aloof and privileged elite.
Also unfortunately, too few Americans learned and/or remember what they learn about how a miserable 1920's/1930's era-Germany did to create a Nazi machine backed by infuriated and economically-depressed Germany. The same phenomenon is empowering extremism in the Third World as well, particularly since the rich/poor divide is so much more dramatic in the Third World compared to the West.
Whether it's anarchism, fascism, socialism or Islamism (some might prefer to call it Radicalism), there have always been attractive places for the disaffected and disempowered to go and exact some form of revenge against a world that they perceive has backed them into a corner. In our modern era, it happens to be Islamism or Radicalism--but the world can still be drawn into a nightmarish World War III, nevertheless.
The anger both here at home and abroad is not getting better--it's getting worse--and although both the Kurds of northern Syria and Iraq, as well as a reinvigorated Egypt that threw out the Muslim Brotherhood from power, are local stalwart allies in the war against Islamist/Radicalist extremism.
The Kurds have proven to be the boots on the ground while the American aerial attacks limit the fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and the Egyptians have prevented Hamas from a once-vital lifeline--despite its unfortunate misery-inducing effect on the rest of the Gazans, who tragically voted Hamas into power.
Meanwhile, both Iraq and Afghanistan have been forced into political compromise to replace the corrupt and/or divisive leaders that the peoples of those nations ALSO mistakenly voted into power. Clearly, our "liberating" Iraq and Afghanistan from dangerous leaders has not proven that their own democratic elections will result in better leaders for those two nations.
The need for strongmen who work well with the West, and the need to suppress Islamist/Radicalist influences while encouraging democracy, appears greater than ever. After all, once Libya and Gaza were allowed to choose their own destiny after the deaths of Khadafi and Arafat, respectively, did things get better or infinitely worse?
For now, "over there" remains "over there" for most of us--and it remains to be determined whether our current President is up to the challenge of keeping the peace for the short run or preventing World War III in the long run (frankly, I have strong concerns about our President preventing new missile shipments to the Israelis and cozying up to Turkey and Iran).
Maybe it's a growing economic divide in the West--some folks still want to blame Bush and refer to the Great Recession of 2008-2009 in the past tense, and others recognize that we're effectively in a Second Great Depression with economic misery still persisting.
Maybe it's the worsening political and sectarian strife throughout the world (such as in Eastern Europe, Africa, the Mideast and Latin America), but the foreign horrors sooner or later will come back to affect us here at home.
Our economy is global, and our cultures are global, and our political/economic awareness is global.
No one wants a World War III (except the extremists who are causing it by trying to take over the world, of course), but to ignore its approach is to risk another Pearl Harbor, or another 9/11. And to ensure a much worse war if or when it finally occurs.
So is it paranoia, or is it prudence, to suggest that we ARE, tragically, careening towards some form of World War Three?
(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected] . He also does regular commentary on the Mark Isler Radio Show on AM 870, and co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 67
Pub: Aug 19, 2014
