Winds of War Are Blowing

How many Americans know what the history and circumstances were that led to WWI?  That was only 100 years ago.

How about WWII?  That was only 70 years ago.

How many know that Mussolini's Italy invaded Ethiopia and the world stood by and watched?  They issued some sanctions against Italy, but in the end, they were worthless and everyone just chose not to get involved.  Sound familiar?

How many Americans know what Russia is doing at the hands of Putin?  How many care?  How many of us are sick and tired of war and believe we have no responsibility to keep tyrants at bay in the rest of the world?  How many think we will bankrupt ourselves if we try and be the world's police?

How many of you want to be around to fight WWIII....which may have already started....we just don't realize it yet.

How many of you believe that Obama is making the world a VERY dangerous place because he thinks the world will all get along if he just acts nice and makes jokes where ever he goes?

If it's true that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, then maybe we're in luck. Many people in this unhappy year are reading histories of World War I, such as Margaret MacMillan's "The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914." That long-ago catastrophe began 100 years ago this week. The revisiting of this dark history may be why so many people today are asking if our own world—tense or aflame in so many places—resembles 1914, or 1938.

Whatever the answer, it is the remembering of past mistakes that matters, if the point is to avoid the high price of re-making those mistakes. A less hopeful view, in an era whose history comes and goes like pixels, would be that Santayana understated the problem. Even remembering the past may not be enough to protect a world poorly led. To understate: Leading from behind has never ended well.

In a recent essay for the Journal, Margaret MacMillan summarized the after-effects of World War I. Two resonate now. Political extremism gained traction, because so many people lost confidence in the existing political order or in the abilities of its leadership. That bred the isolationism of the 1920s and '30s. Isolationism was a refusal to see the whole world clearly. Self-interest, then and now, has its limits.

Which brings our new readings into the learning curves of history up to 1938. But not quite. First a revealing stop in the years just before Munich, when in 1935 Benito Mussolini's Italy invaded Ethiopia.

Before the invasion, Ethiopia's emperor, Haile Selassie, did what the civilized world expected one to do in the post-World War I world: He appealed for help to the League of Nations. The League imposed on Italy limited sanctions, which were ineffectual.

One might say this was one of history's earlier "red lines." Mussolini blew by it, invading Ethiopia and using mustard gas on its army, as Bashar Assad has done to Syria's rebel population. Mussolini merged Ethiopia with Italy's colonies in east Africa. The League condemned Italy—and dropped its sanctions.

In defeat, Haile Selassie delivered a famous speech to the League in Geneva. He knew they wouldn't help. As he stepped from the podium, he remarked: "It is us today. Tomorrow it will be you."

In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, not unlike John Kerry today, shuttled tirelessly between London and wherever Adolf Hitler consented to meet him to discuss a nonviolent solution to Hitler's intention to annex the Sudetenland, the part of Czechoslovakia inhabited by ethnic Germans. Hitler earlier in the year had annexed Austria, with nary a peep from the world "community." Many said the forced absorption of Austria was perfectly understandable.

One may hope Mr. Kerry and President Obama have more success with their stop-the-violence missions to Vladimir Putin, Kiev, Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Tehran, Afghanistan and the South China Sea than Neville Chamberlain had with Hitler, who pocketed eastern Ukraine—excuse me, the Sudetenland—and then swallowed the rest of Czechoslovakia, which ceased to exist.

But here's the forgotten part. After signing the Munich Agreement on Sept. 29, 1938—an event now reduced to one vile word, appeasement—Chamberlain returned to England in triumph. Many, recalling 1914-18, feared war. Londoners lined the streets to cheer Chamberlain's deal with Hitler. He was feted by King George VI. At 10 Downing Street, Chamberlain said the words for which history remembers him: "I believe it is peace for our time."

Here;  http://online.wsj.com/articles/winds-of-war-again-1406760959?mod=trending_now_8

Russia continues to take over parts of Ukraine while the world fiddles.  "Oh well, it's only Ukraine...and we don't even know where that is!  Let Europe handle it for once!", is what most Americans say.

And now that the finger is pointing at him for responsibility of shooting down the Malaysian 777...the outrage has already started to soften.  Who can be bothered!...it's summertime!!

Israel has endured thousands of missiles coming in from terrorists who enjoy cutting off people's heads in the name of their Satanic-god, Allah.  "Oh well, they probably shouldn't have taken those Muslim's land...and the Muslims are pissed...so Israel better figure it out!  It's not our fight.", is what many Americans say.

With Syria, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Gaza, Lebanon, Egypt and other Arab states in tension....while Russia seems to care less about world opinion and thinks sanctions imposed are a joke...and Europe is incapable of putting together a credible military force capable of imposing or defending anything...and America pulling out of all wars and getting ready to come home and enjoy some peace....we really do have all the necessary ingredients for WWIII.

Of course WWII killed some 50,000,000 people, but now that we've had 70 years to advance our killing-technology, I would have to believe the next World War will leave a lot more dead and wounded than the last one.

As Ethiopia's leader said once he found out the world WOULD NOT come an protect him from an aggressive bully, "It is us today.  Tomorrow it will be you."

He was right.

Jesus said the Last Days would have wars and rumors of war.  If you watch the news tonight and read the paper today....it would appear that's exactly what we have going on....and Israel is sitting right in the center of it all.