Over the last week, I’ve ranted about the media, now it is time to move onto something with a little less controversy. Who are we kidding, I got nothing. Putin is not so subtly threatening us with Nukes; ISIL wants to make more videos of useless gore; and, people around the globe are struggling to make sense of all the chaos. Meanwhile, there are hearings and interviews about Benghazi, and much discussion about several past September 11th events, and how it relates to the upcoming 9/11. In other news, NATO had a big Summit, and while there was much chest pounding and leaf throwing, with the dawn of a new week, many Americans are still wondering from where, and from whom, the next blow will come. It is often said around here that one of the most heinous of old world curses was, “may you live in interesting times.” Well for most of us, we appear to be living that curse. Then again, are we worse off than say 70 to 100 years ago?
Looking back through history, you can take several periods of time and see that maybe we aren’t any different than we were those decades ago. After all, at one point in the 1930s, we were engaged in a slow recovery from a depression, while Europe was especially hard hit with rampant inflation and the spread of fascism. Meanwhile in Asia, Japan was running roughshod over China, and we were hearing about the Rape of Nanking, the sinking of the USS Panay. All of this was about the same time we were dealing with the annexation of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the collapse of the Versailles Treaty. The only difference between then and now is that we’re hearing about things faster, and with greater stridency. The names have changed, the alliances are different, but the concepts are with us regardless of decade. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t find comfort in any of this, especially since to me, we’re just repeating history.
Knowing this, I would find far greater comfort in knowing that this time we’re going to do something without waiting for the worst to force us to do something. We shouldn’t need a December 7th or a September 11th to awaken from our torpor and hope that the world will “do the right thing” without us. Unfortunately, many with the power to stop things early, before the costs become too high in lives, appear to have never read a history book. I’m not saying that this is a time for bombastic action, but it clearly isn’t a time for sitting on thumbs either. There are a lot of options in the global/historical playbook, but the one we know that absolutely doesn’t work is appeasement....... ~ Michael S. Pauley
Looking back through history, you can take several periods of time and see that maybe we aren’t any different than we were those decades ago. After all, at one point in the 1930s, we were engaged in a slow recovery from a depression, while Europe was especially hard hit with rampant inflation and the spread of fascism. Meanwhile in Asia, Japan was running roughshod over China, and we were hearing about the Rape of Nanking, the sinking of the USS Panay. All of this was about the same time we were dealing with the annexation of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and the collapse of the Versailles Treaty. The only difference between then and now is that we’re hearing about things faster, and with greater stridency. The names have changed, the alliances are different, but the concepts are with us regardless of decade. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t find comfort in any of this, especially since to me, we’re just repeating history.
Knowing this, I would find far greater comfort in knowing that this time we’re going to do something without waiting for the worst to force us to do something. We shouldn’t need a December 7th or a September 11th to awaken from our torpor and hope that the world will “do the right thing” without us. Unfortunately, many with the power to stop things early, before the costs become too high in lives, appear to have never read a history book. I’m not saying that this is a time for bombastic action, but it clearly isn’t a time for sitting on thumbs either. There are a lot of options in the global/historical playbook, but the one we know that absolutely doesn’t work is appeasement....... ~ Michael S. Pauley
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