War Clouds on the Horizon?

National Review ^ | December 4, 2014 | Victor Davis Hanson

[nuconvert]

A large war is looming absent preventive American vigilance

The world is changing and becoming even more dangerous — in a way we’ve seen before.

In the decade before World War I, the near-hundred-year European peace that had followed the fall of Napoleon was taken for granted. Yet it abruptly imploded in 1914. Prior little wars in the Balkans had seemed to predict a much larger one on the horizon — and were ignored.

The exhausted Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires were spent forces unable to control nationalist movements in their provinces. The British Empire was fading. Imperial Germany was rising. Czarist Russia was beset with revolutionary rebellion. As power shifted, decline for some nations seemed like opportunity for others.

The same was true in 1939. The tragedy of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 was not that it had been too harsh. In fact, it was far milder than the terms Germany had imposed on a defeated Russia in 1918 or the requirements it had planned for France in 1914.

Instead, Versailles combined the worst of both worlds: harsh language without any means of enforcement.

The subsequent appeasement of Britain and France, the isolationism of the United States, and the collaboration of the Soviet Union with Nazi Germany green-lighted Hitler’s aggression — and another world war.

We are entering a similarly dangerous interlude. Collapsing oil prices — a good thing for most of the world — will make troublemakers like oil-exporting Iran and Russia take even more risks.

[C. Edmund Wright]

....yes, many of us do believe that.....

[saintgermaine]

As Pope Francis stated not too long ago, we are already involved in a slow moving WW III. He may have socialistic tendencies but he is also smart enough to see and realize that many things are out of kilter and eventually will have to be fixed. Unfortunately more often than not it will take a war to fix it.

[varon]

We are no longer a cohesive United States.

Sad but true. No longer can an American be recognized by appearance, language, customs, religion or political philosophy. Only one thing that Americans share, a social security number.

And how was your day citizen 123-45-6789?

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Opening lines to EL CID;

The Prophet has commanded us
to rule the world.
Where in all your land of Spain
is the glory of Allah?
When men speak of you,
they speak of poets...
music makers, doctors, scientists.
Where are your warriors?
You dare call yourselves
sons of the Prophet?
You have become women!
Burn your books.
Make warriors of your poets.
Let your doctors invent
new poisons for our arrows.
Let your scientists
invent new war machines.
And then, kill!
Burn.
Infidels live on your frontiers.
Encourage them to kill each other.
And when they are weak and torn...
I will sweep up from Africa...
and thus the empire of the one God,
the true God Allah...
- Allah is the one God.
- will spread.
First, across Spain.
Then, across Europe.
Then, the whole world!

[PUGACHEV]

The Sand Pebbles was a good movie, with a memorable score, but the book is much better, and was written by a man who had been a China sailor. If you found the political and cultural ironies and contradictions interesting in the movie, you had only a taste of what's in the book.

[PUGACHEV]

The same might have been said in the 1930s. The country was perhaps closer to revolution then than it has ever been before or since. One thing Pearl Harbor did was bring the country together in appreciation of those things we all have in common, as did 9/11, albeit only briefly.

[jimjohn]

World War III began on September 11, 2001.

It escalated on January 20, 2009.

[RWB Patriot]

Ayn Rand once said that America was fast approaching the point where government was free to do whatever it wants, while the average citizen could only act with permission.

When we finally cross that line all the way (think a totalitarian dictatorship), that will be a declaration of war on real Americans.

[aquila48]

Is Victor talking about civil war at home?

[Varsity Flight]

“Holman come down”!

“Holman come down”!

“Holman come down”!

[Bigg Red]

Excellent essay. Well worth reading in its entirety.

But one correction:

The ancient ingredients of war are all on the horizon. An old postwar order crumbles amid American indifference.

^^^
Should say “perceived American indifference”, as the progressives are definitely not indifferent but wholly committed to a destruction of the postwar order.

[Bigg Red]

I don’t think the US will go unscathed....

**
I think you probably meant to say:

I don’t think the US homeland will go unscathed....

[Bigg Red]

I don’t think the US will go unscathed....

**
I think you probably meant to say:

I don’t think the US homeland will go unscathed....

[Bigg Red]

+1

[M Kehoe]

Good afternoon.

“World War III began on September 11, 2001.”

Correct. We should have nuked Mecca, Medina and Qom the next day.

That would be the end to any other country thinking about war.

5.56mm

[SomeCallMeTim]

Yes.. Russia and Iran are doing ALL of those things...

I assume that’s what you’re talking about.

[grania]

I’m talking about US policy. Russia seems to respond mostly to things closer to its sphere of influence.

[SatinDoll]

My grandfather was a CPO in the U.S.Navy prior to and during WWI. The Sand Pebbles brought tears to his eyes.

[RaceBannon]

actually, you need to watch these videos of Diana West on the Betrayal of the West

She has some things to say how we sided with the Soviets on PURPOSE because of the commie infiltration of the roosevelt admin

we fought Japan to keep Russia from having a two front war, too, it is in these videos of this playlist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgOu_-FU-JE&index=9&list=PLkoOH05Yvyb2IfDUSxkoYQSrKyH9XORbq

[Uri’el-2012]

War Clouds on the Horizon?

Any journeyman biblical scholar has known this for six years.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach