Things in the world look pretty grim. Israel and Gaza, specifically Hamas, are at war. Ground troops have entered Gaza. Could it have been stopped before it got to this stage? Ask Hamas. They are who rejected the cease-fire agreement. I feel badly for the women and children. Women have no power and certainly children don’t. Gaza is tiny. There is no place to run and hide. This is a difficult region to understand. What I do understand is why Israel doesn’t want rockets fired in on its population.
Russian separatists have downed a Malaysian commercial airline. The militants won’t allow the international community in to aid recovery efforts. The scene sounds horrific. There isn’t much doubt at this point that the plane was shot down. This evil act of aggression on an innocent civilian population is totally inexcuseable.
Watch Russia scramble to make up excuses for itself, as usual.
Crash victims were mainly from the Netherlands but victims from 10 other countries were also killed. The world mourns the loss of these innocent souls lives.
Are we on the brink of some sort of mass war? I hesitate to say WWIII, but we all know from history how those things escalate. Yet, the stock market was thriving on Friday, despite all the grim news. Capitalism never ceases to amaze me.
The flight disaster in Ukraine sort of spooked our household in an unusual way. Mrs. W. was an acquaintance of Dr. Jonathan Mann, a pioneering HIV/AIDS scientist, who died in the SwissAir 111 crash in the Atlantic in 1998. He taught her much about HIV/AIDS in Africa. The Doc was on his way to a UN conference in Geneva on HIV vaccines when the crash happened. We did a double take when we heard that a number of the dead aboard that Malaysian Airlines flight were noted HIV/AIDS scientists and specialists headed to a conference in Australia. Too much deja vu. Too many memories of a critical loss. What a waste.
Huge waste. Also, very spooky.
The more I learn of Malaysian Airlines flight 17 the more disturbing it becomes. Those thugs with the machine guns turned on international observers was totally unacceptable. This one will not go unpunished, I fear.
Well, I am glad Obama is president rather than one of those neocons. We would be at war by now had McCain or Romney were president.
Now isn’t this a gratuitous assertion! I must ask, have you considered it even remotely possible that the current state in Ukraine is a direct result of Putin believing that the Obama administration is weak, and lacks the resolve or conviction to confront aggression? Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran Gaza, South China Sea, Crimea, Ukraine… Putin is a Machiavellian who believes when pushed, Obama will fold like a lawn-chair, and the schizophrenic nature of this administration’s foreign policy and unilateral disarmament does nothing but support Putin’s views.
I call speculation on both your parts.
“Are we on the brink of some sort of mass war? I hesitate to say WWIII, but we all know from history how those things escalate. Yet, the stock market was thriving on Friday, despite all the grim news. Capitalism never ceases to amaze me.”
Maybe we are on the verge of a major global conflict that could grow out of a regional one. WWI started this way. I do believe we are in a period of global instability, as major regional powers like Russia, Iran, and China seek to expand their “spheres of influence” both militarily, and economically. I don’t take a whole lot of comfort over how the DOW is performing, as I realize that much of this trading is due to the poor performance of bonds and treasuries. Money can only sit still for so long, and investors got to put it someplace.
Do I think we should drop the 82nd Airborne or send in the Marines at the drop of a hat? Certainly not. We have a much, much better weapon, albeit one that is being poorly stewarded by this administration: The US Economy, specifically the energy sector. If the US had the will, they could flood the global market with energy, and hurt both Russia and Iran. US dominance of the world energy markets would prevent China from trying to get the BRIC nations to dump the dollar as their reserve currency. A US that remains strong both militarily, and economically, is a deterrent to aggressive and provocative nations like Russia. Hurt the Russian economy and watch Putin’s popularity crumble. Watch China pause in its efforts to dominate its neighbors. Watch the Iranian nuke program come to a screeching halt, as their main funding source, petroleum, suffers from pricing collapse. And best of all, watch the economies of friendly, industrialized nations rebound on lower energy prices.
Israel Today, 21 July 2014, French Prime Minister Valls:
“Traditional anti-Semitism, this old disease of Europe, is joined by a new anti-Semitism that cannot be denied or concealed, that we must face. It happens on the social networks and in workers’ neighborhoods, among ignorant young men who hide their hatred of Jews behind a facade of anti-Zionism or hatred of the State of Israel.”
I just read an article by Ben Cohen in J-Wire about the need for Jews to take to the streets in places like Paris to actively protect the synagogues and Jewish homes and businesses from attack, to not let what happened before happen again. Ben Stein writes in American Spectator that he sees an anti-Israel tone almost everywhere he looks in the US media. I am getting a flood of mail and even telephone calls to the house from a reputable organization which needs donations to help Jews in danger make the aliyah to Israel. They are telling me that Jews in the Ukraine are scared out of their wits about what is happening there and about being penned in by the old hate and the new war and chaos. And Jews are starting to leave France as well. Nor do things look promising in other parts of western and eastern Europe.
Damn, does this pitiful world never learn a lesson and hold onto it?!
Maybe I am just not paranoid enough but I rarely see anti-Semitism in the media.. I also believe it is possible to criticize Israel’s policies of state from time to time without being called anti-Semitic.
Now there is a topic for discussion. Can we criticize Israel without being anti-semitic?
@Wolve
“Damn, does this pitiful world never learn a lesson and hold onto it?!”
Apparently not, and not only are the Jews experiencing a rise in persecution, Christians are as well, in places like Egypt, Iraq, the West Bank, and in Africa. Congregations that were started by the original apostles are teetering on the brink of extinction. Add to this the “soft” hatred rising in the “civilized” west, is it any wonder why some people feel like the “end is nigh”?