Saturday, July 09, 2005

And some future perspective for us....

Americans have always been self focussed and not had much historical perspective. And since the 1960s when we collectively decided to stop teaching and start self esteeming in schools it's been worse. Now it's like we are dogs, every day is a surprise.

Whatever is in front of our faces is the ONLY THING THAT EVER WAS OR EVER WILL BE. Some woman lost in Aruba, airplanes crashing into buildings, a has been football player on trial, it's all the same.

But there is a future, and I've been thinking that all this terrorism / war on terror is an interesting rehersal and test bed.

For our real future competitors.

I expect the general staffs in Peiking, Moscow, and Delhi- as well as Teheran and the forests of Colombia- are watching with interest. This is what they do when you crash into their buildings, shoot a dozen people from the trunk of a car, fight a war, or get accused of flushing a book down a toilet. This is how we defend our borders.

If I was on those staffs I might be concluding that we are no longer serious people. Look at it from their perspective. The west has the ability to totally overpower the Arabs. Yet a collection of desert nomads who can barely work an electric generator hold us hostage to the tune of billions. If China had our navy, the oil would be shipped east for nothing. We conquer Iraq, and assign our very effective army to patrolling for men with rifles. Foreigners conspire to slaughter our people, and we make fools of ourselves extending our incomprehensible legal rights to them. Four bombs in London, and we apologise to the murderers' coreligionists.

I might be wondering if a couple of snipers or kidnaping some brides could draw our focus better than, say, annexing Taiwan.

The Moslems are a problem, but the rest of the world is still there.

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