There Will Be Wars and Rumors of Wars
Ukraine, Gaza, and Elsewhere
Checking my daily email from Reuters this morning revealed these two stories:
US President Joe Biden is expected to sign a new security agreement with Ukraine to pledge America's long-term support, while British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will announce up to $310 million in bilateral assistance to the country.
Israeli tanks advanced deeper into the western area of Rafah, amid one of the worst nights of bombardment from air, ground, and sea, forcing many families to flee their homes and tents under darkness, residents said. Follow the latest on the Gaza war.
“Diplomacy falters” is one of the sub-headings, which is assuredly the case, assuming diplomacy was even tried.
The BLUF, or bottom-line upfront, to use an Army acronym, is more death, dying, and destruction in Ukraine and Gaza.
Reuters still refers to Israeli ethnic cleaning in Gaza as the “Gaza war,” but only one side has tanks, combat aircraft, 2000-pound bombs, heavy artillery, bulldozers, and even nuclear weapons. It’s not exactly a fair fight, is it? The Israeli government says it’s out to destroy Hamas, but what it’s really after is the destruction of Gaza and the forced relocation of Palestinians there, after which Gaza will be annexed and assimilated into Israel.
Turning to the Ukraine War, the longer it lasts, the greater the suffering, and the higher the risk of further escalation. Yet the focus is always on deterring Russia and defeating Putin, as if it’s 1938 yet again, with Putin as Hitler and Ukraine as Czechoslovakia. Any diplomatic settlement with Russia will be the equivalent of appeasement, another Munich Agreement, so the war must go on, I guess until one side or the other collapses from the strain. Perhaps 1918 and the chaotic end of World War I is a better year to think about than 1938.
Meanwhile, Reuters tells me there are “challenges” in Africa and that China must be corralled and contained. Poor Africa. European nations (and the United States) are always offering answers to Africa’s “challenges,” but those answers address the interests of the West, not of African peoples. The U.S. has a whole military command, AFRICOM, to address those “challenges,” mainly in the form of U.S. weapons sales and “security assistance.”
Finally, resurrecting the racist “yellow peril” trope with regards to China is only driving that country into closer contact with Russia, which has the added benefit of justifying immense Pentagon spending due to the dual threat of Russia-China. (Democrats tend to stress Russia as the big threat; Republicans prefer China.). Thus we hear of a new Cold War, which of course necessitates colossal military spending, because do you want China and Russia to rule the world?
There will be wars and rumors of wars: And so it goes with U.S. foreign relations, in perpetuity, seemingly.
Given the penchant we have for war, combined with our appetite for natural resources and total disdain of our environment, it bodes ill for the future of the human species.
There is an interesting theory about mass extinctions that goes something like this:
In order to ensure survival of the species, all species bear more progeny than needed for parental replacement.
As a result, the population of the dominant species, which has no predators, will expand until it consumes all available resources and lays waste to the environment making it uninhabitable - at which point it will perish along with many other species that were dependent on that environment.
In the movie "Matrix", while interrogating Morpheus, Agent Smith said, " I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet."
While it's not quite true that mammals instinctively develop a natural equilibrium, it is true that an equilibrium is normally established for most species in the absence of humans. And while humans are not quite like viruses, they are busy consuming all natural resources and laying waste to the environment; and the pace at which they are doing so is ever accelerating.
Given that the high percentage of our species don't understand this and/or don't care about it - especially those in power - the future looks bleak.
The US has sustained itself through wars ever since the end of WWII. I think that a primary reason aside from the economic boost and hegemonic lust for other people's resources is that it lets the government convince corporate-owned-news, congress creeps and the public that there is an ongoing crisis, and therefore everyone needs to be onboard. Either you are with "us", or you are with "them". Korea, Viet Nam/Cambodia/Laos, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Ukraine only being the big ones, with many smaller wars, violent coups and leftist slaughters by right-wing mercenaries scattered about over the last 70 years. As long as so many people turn to the corporate-owned-news for their information, things are not going to change. Most people I know insist that Russia's invasion in Ukraine was "unprovoked".