Posted on 10/10/2015 1:14:00 PM PDT by Lorianne
Watching the events cascading in Syria makes it eerily easy to see how the political elites of 1914 stumbled into World War I while believing they were pursuing a sensible set of national interests.
The parallels are far from precise. The alliances bonding the players in today’s Middle East aren’t as interlocking as those in early 20th-century Europe. The war-mobilizing machinery isn’t as rigid. And, of course, today’s leaders have the precautionary example of World War I to rivet their attention: They know the pitfalls of escalation and the tragic consequences of unbounded warfare—though people don’t always heed the lessons of the past.
Like the Europe of 101 years ago, the Middle East today is a tinderbox, with plenty of kindling supplied by the combination of weak regimes, millenarian militias, and freelance rebels of various persuasion, each faction backed (or directly armed and aided) by larger powers, some engaged in proxy wars, others drawn in for converging motives while trying to resist the centripetal pull of deeper involvement (with diminishing success). It doesn’t require a wild imagination to envision the lighting of a match—some contemporary counterpart to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Thought provoking! Thanks for posting.
We have all the warnings that reasonable statesmen would read and heed. But we’ve elected an ideolog who is not a statesman or reasonable. He sees the world through an ideological lens ground by Islam, socialism and drugs. Far from the smartest man around, he’s the most mundane leader this country has ever seen. He’s advised by people with agendas contrary to all of mainstream America; yet he has all of America’s power at his fingertips.
The mightiest army in the world can be undone by bad leadership. It’s probably not possible to get worse leadership than what we have now.
No, not Europe 1914. Try Spain, 1937.
The Middle East is nothing like Europe in 1914.
Europe was highly industrialized, with the exception of Russia, and everyone was itching for a fight, making defense treaties left and right. The Middle East might be itching to fight, but Iran and Turkey have only modest industries, and the factionalism of all the countries precludes any kind of united front against anyone.
Both Russia and the US have no commitments to any of the states, and neither country wants a war with the other.
Unless Obama goes psychotic, nothing even close to the War to End All Wars will happen.
[On the other hand, screwing people who thought they were allies is firmly established policy from WW2, Vietnam, and Kosovo.]
Nah. Europe in 1914 was Christian and civilized.
1. Build a massive wall around the middle east/NE Africa.
2. Wait 20-30 years.
3. ???????
4. Problem solved.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.