In some ways The Cold War has never really ended, despite the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The East-West proxy war in Afghanistan has raged on and off since the 1970s, with alternating military dominance by the Russians and the Americans and their surrogates. East-West (Russian-U.S. & their proxies) power struggles have been part of the power struggles in of most Arab Spring countries, most dramatically in Syria but also in Libya and elsewhere. Both the United States and Russia are positioning to intervene more overtly in the semi-covert power struggle in Ukraine. In Asia the power struggles between the U.S. and China for regional influence continue, with both China and the U.S. having exponentially stronger armed forces than they did during the proxy war in Vietnam. I grew up in a time of constant terror that we were near the brink of a Third World War, which would likely be a war of widespread annihilation. We learned in school about the accidental start of WWI and the ghastly military stalemate that slaughtered millions. And we learned how WWII really had its conception in what, in retrospect, were unstable resolutions after WWI. I was a toddler during The Cuban Missile Crisis. I became conscious of the larger world around me during the Southeast Asia wars. My mother, whose father had fought in the First World War and whose brother had fought in the Second World War, always worried that her sons would also be sent off to fight in the next war (we were young enough to miss the draft for Viet Nam). But between my family history, my formal education, and my inherent gifts for seeing the darker sides of life, I have lived much of my life in a constant state of apprehension and realization that the relentless proxy wars and armed struggles (Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Congo, Dominican Republic, Israel, Cyprus, Lebanon, Korea, Iran, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Egypt, Grenada, Honduras, Chad, Panama, Persian Gulf, Columbia, Philippines, Liberia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Somalia, Bosnia, Haiti, Central African Republic, Congo, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Serbia, Nigeria, Yemen, Angola, Pakistan, Georgia, Turkey, Jordan, Libya, Ukraine etc. - & who-knows-where-else -) are all hot burning tinder in the midst of a dry wilderness of constantly escalating armed power.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Feb 2014 17:11:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015