So Gadhafi is dead! So Saddam is dead! So the Pharaoh in Egypt is, well, nearly dead! So all these uprisings, head toppling, millions of rounds fired into the air that, well, make their way back to earth due to gravity and kill people but I find myself simply asking, now, so what?
If we have studied anything in the last five years it should be in how not to topple a regime using Iraq as the textbook. Afghanistan will be, if it ever topples Karzai and Pakistan when the topple comes, Syria and, and and .... in the void of leadership, chaos reigns! There is still no real peace in Iraq by a long shot and I am sure after the fireworks and celebrations subside in couple of days, there will be a sinking of Libya into a period of chaos by rioting, looting, killing; you know, like New Orleans after Katrina!
My point is that toppling a dictator is a good thing IF there is an infrastructure and a democratic system and most importantly we have learned, a POLICE force that is not corrupt and has the training, weapons, and will to truly police a population. I honestly never realized the vital nature of a police force to a citizenry until I watched the Iraq debacle unfold and now Egypt and the others.
The Middle East is burning so who will either stoke the flames with more gasoline or quench the embers of dissent? I cannot get overjoyed by any of this for there is Iran, there is Iran and Israel, there is over sixty percent of the world's oil supply in these countries where the toppling and uprising is underway and worst of all, to me, the US is too weakened politically to truly interject powerfully into the engine of this morass. So I watch the BRICS and especially, ready, Mr. Putin's Russia and China.
Opportunity breeds control and the vast array of opportunity in the ME is unparalleled. Think about all of this going on and Israel decides to take on Iran by bombing the nuclear sites! Think about Turkey with a tremendous army, a global will and a solid political system and leader if they decide to exert their will onto the coals of this regional civil war! Go ahead, think about it!
How will we in the US see this play out? I believe we will see higher fuel prices due to commodity prices of oil turn north as the US$ continue to weaken thus making the price of oil more expensive. Should Russia and China take a path of colonization or proxy in this region, and they have the money to do just that, the geometry of global diplomacy changes in ways we cannot now fully grasp. The days ahead will be part of a shifting sand that could be quicksand that becomes treacherous to those who tread there unawares and unprepared. America NEEDS to be strong for the world but instead, we have campaigning going on, debt skyrocketing and the world sort of smirks at the US now instead of snapping to and responding to what the giant Policeman walking the global beat has to say.
The world NEEDS AMERICA STRONG NOW!!!!
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