World less peaceful than five years ago

Asia Times ^ | 06/12/2013 | Jim Lobe

[TexGrill]

WASHINGTON - The world - especially the Greater Middle East - has become less peaceful than it was five years ago, according to the 2013 edition of the annual Global Peace Index (GPI) released here Tuesday by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

Consistent with that trend, the index also found that global peacefulness declined over the past year, chiefly due to the intensifying civil war in Syria; the rising number of homicides, especially in Mexico, Central America, and several sub-Saharan African countries; and increased military spending as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) in many nations.

Led by Iceland, Denmark and Austria, the index found that Europe remained comfortably the world's most peaceful region over the

past year, while South Asia was the least peaceful, dragged down by Afghanistan, which ranked 162nd of the 162 countries covered by this year's index, and Pakistan, which claimed the 157th spot.

But the Middle East also fell close to the bottom, due to the raging conflict in Syria (160), the uptick in sectarian violence in Iraq (159), continuing conflict in Sudan (157) and Yemen (152). Israel (150) also brought down the region, due its short war with Hamas in November and the rise in its military spending that followed.

[TexGrill]

But Barry won the Nobel Peace Prize 5 years ago. What happened? It's gotta be Bush's fault.

[BuckeyeTexan]

Well, no kidding? Ain’t that about the length of time Oblahblah has been in office?

[TexGrill]

What’s funnier I might have met some of those folks about a year ago. They were talking about writing a global peace report and they seemed to be your regular Leftists. But I stumped them. I asked a simple question, is the world more dangerous now or when Bush was president. They didn’t answer my question and left with frowns on their faces.

[Olog-hai]

Europe the most peaceful? Only because their media doesn’t report the real goings-on there.

Primary cause would be a certain speech in Cairo back in 2009, which led to a not-so-surreptitious expansion of the caliphate.

[Norm Lenhart]

20 min. later they invented an all new self-justifying rationale blaming the right. Ya gotta give them time. Lib brains don’t work as quick as ours ;)

[Jack Hammer]

Thank you, president butthead, for that much-vaunted Arab Spring, which did so much to destabilize the planet.

[Yo-Yo]

Does this mean that Obummer has to give back his Nobel Peace Prize?

[TexGrill]

Good question?

[Pollster1]

That’s unexpected. Who would have guessed that weakening the most powerful country in the history of the world would make things less peaceful? Who could have guessed that reducing freedom in the United States would increase the incentive to take b force instead of working to produce? Who could have guessed that the fundamental transformation of America from a capitalist utopia toward a third-world communist hellhole where people get ahead by taking instead of getting ahead by producing would shift outside incentives from getting ahead by producing to getting ahead by taking?