We are sitting atop a volcano that could erupt at any moment. Indeed, the only question is not whether it will explode, but when – and where. For this impending seismic event has multiple pathways to the surface, spread across no less than three continents.
Europe – The long peace that has prevailed in Europe is coming to an end. Ukraine is a battlefield between East and West, where a proxy war between a US-backed regime and an insurgent movement that seeks separation from Kiev is tearing the country apart – and threatens to involve both the Western powers and the Kremlin.
The fighting has escalated, with increased casualties on both sides – and civilian deaths are rising at an alarming rate. The Ukrainian military has sent in some of its elite units, and as this bit of propaganda from the Voice of America makes all too clear, the Ukrainian commanders at the front are champing at the bit for a more aggressive approach by their political leaders.
The Ukrainian public relations machine is very active in the West, with outlets like Newsweek running their propaganda verbatim and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her surrogates accusing her Republican opponent of being a “useful idiot” of the Kremlin for opposing US military aid to Kiev.
The political atmosphere in Ukraine itself is provoking the regime to bypass the Minsk peace process and seek a military solution. The coup leaders in Kiev – who came to power by overthrowing the democratically-elected President – are losing support rapidly, with a tanking economy and widespread corruption and criminality: the Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, Oleksandr Turchynov, recently announced that a declaration of martial law is in the works. This is just what the Kiev regime needs to silence its critics and crush rising internal opposition.
North Africa – The return of US bombers to Libya shows every sign of being but the first phase of an extended campaign. With the complete destabilization of the country resulting from Hillary’s War, the US has been planning phase two of its Libyan adventure for quite some time – and now with the “request” by the UN-backed “unity” government (one of three rival Libyan governments), it has a quasi-legal cover to do so.
French and Italian troops are already on the ground, and it’s only a matter of time before American soldiers join them in a “multi-national” force to keep the nonexistent “peace.” This is a mission that has no logical endpoint. As in Iraq, we’ll keep returning to the scene of the crime, trying to undo what cannot be undone.
Middle East – Speaking of Iraq, US troops are once more on the move into that war-torn country, with very little notice being given in the US media. Thirteen years after the disastrous decision to topple Saddam Hussein, the body count is rising again.
These four flashpoints are just waiting to ignite – and it doesn’t look like any of the candidates likely to occupy the Oval Office next year will do anything but increase the probability that we’ll be locked in yet another unwinnable unjustifiable military conflict sometime next year – if not sooner.
A couple of years ago, Young Americans for Liberty launched a public campaign which they dubbed “A Generation of War,” pointing out that young people today have never known what peacetime is like. And as yet more war clouds gather on the horizon, the prospects for peace fade to near invisibility.
I don’t believe the American people want that: whenever they’ve had the chance to choose between war and peace they’ve chosen the latter –as they did when Obama announced he was going to bomb Syria and the congressional phone lines lit up with protest.
But the people need to be educated, and kept up to date on what the War Party is planning. They have to be exposed to something other than the pro-war line of the “mainstream” media. And that’s our mission at Antiwar.com.
But we can’t do it without your support. We don’t get funding from eccentric billionaires or big foundations. We depend on you, our readers and supporters, for the resources we need to continue our mission.
We are living in some pretty dangerous times – and the danger increases by the day.
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NOTES IN THE MARGIN
You can check out my Twitter feed by going here. But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud.
I’ve written a couple of books, which you might want to peruse. Here is the link for buying the second edition of my 1993 book, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, with an Introduction by Prof. George W. Carey, a Foreword by Patrick J. Buchanan, and critical essays by Scott Richert and David Gordon (ISI Books, 2008).
You can buy An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (Prometheus Books, 2000), my biography of the great libertarian thinker, here.
