July 20, 2006
By Earl Watt, Publisher
Southwest Daily Times
Here we are -- where it seems we have always been -- on the verge of armageddon.
Newt Gingrich shared on a recent new program that we are perhaps on the brink of World War III.
The lines are certainly being drawn, and although some players have changed teams, there seems to be some signs that we are one key event away from a global conflict.
In the 1940s, it was the U.S. who had its head in the sand, ignoring the strife around the globe as Japan and Germany gobbled up country after country.
Today, it is most of the European continent that is employing an isolationist attitude, hoping that the problems abroad do not darken their doorway.
But hostilities between Lebanon and Israel, fueled by Iranian weapons, missile testing in North Korea, and terrorist activities in India and elsewhere, have a tendency for spreading.
Like any illness, war consumes the globe and requires a unified effort to cure the cancer.
Europe will seek to quarantine itself, and we know all too well that unchecked strife will involve the streets of Paris and Berlin just as it reached the beaches of Hawaii.
Are we really facing a massive world war?
The signs aren't good.
If Japan were to strike missile installations in North Korea, there would be repercussions. The U.S. would certainly defend its Japanese allies. Who knows what the Russians or China would do, and there you go, we are facing world war.
While Lebanon and Israel are taking up headlines and international attention, Iran continues to advance its ability to produce nuclear weapons. Iran has already threatened to erase Israel from the face of the Earth. Should no action be taken and Iran develops nuclear technology, Israel and its allies would be the target. The U.S. would defend Israel. Who knows what the Russians or China would do, and there you go, we are facing a world war.
India and Pakistan continue to be on the verge of all-out war. African nations face civil war daily.
Terrorism continues to be distributed across the globe, and eventually, this could escalate into a religious battle where soldiers on both sides will pay the ultimate price to remove the other.
It seems the invitation to go to war is being offered with regularity.
Some of these conflicts involve the U.S. directly and others indirectly. Either way, it seems that there is a powder keg set to detonate.
There is still a way out of this demise.
Her name is Condoleezza Rice.
Negotiating peace in hostile situations will be key to defusing these boiler-plate issues.
In the end, North Koreans want food, Iran wants power (and not electrical), and terrorists want anarchy.
Each must be dealt with very differently.
There is no unilateral approach to peace, something that causes political opportunism.
Why didn't we handle Iran like Iraq? Why are we negotiating with North Korea through the United Nations?
Rice will be tested, and perhaps more than ever before, worldwide peace or war depends on her ability to bargain.
Gas prices continue to remain volatile as uncertainty strains the marketplace.
It seems if World War III is to come, it won't be the war of buttons as predicted.
It will be what war has always been -- ugly and bloody.
Soldiers and civilians alike are dying today.
Thanks to the sacrifice of the U.S. military, it is almost exclusively elsewhere.
I do not know if Gingrich is right, if we are on the brink of a global conflict, I just know that we have always been one step away.
Sometime somewhere, someone is going to stumble.
http://www.swdtimes.com/swdtimes/2006/071806/opinion2.html