Unavoidable Conflict ...

In today's free wheeling and reckless information society we are creating a world that can only be described as one that follows the "many-worlds" theory based on quantum mechanics. Through the use of anecdotal evidence, ad homonym fallacies, outright lies, historical revisionism, questionable equivalency strategies, and biased propaganda peddled as fact the world is being steadily driven towards a world wide conflict and like all grand conflicts it will be ultimately settled by violence. Each side of the conflict will believe without a doubt that they are right and their opponents are wrong and there will be no negotiations or compromises until after the bullets and bombs start flying and people start dying. The fact that 2 or more groups can look at the same hard facts and come up with such opposing world views is humanities curse.

I am not talking about minor or petty issues I am referring to the conflicts based on political, religious, societal,  economics, and cultural ideologies. We have allowed ego and emotion to override commonsense and this has fomented such hate amongst each other that I see no way to avoid the coming conflict. I can only hope I am no  longer around when it finally happens. Violence is a large part of human nature and in order to temper and reduce the level of violence there will need to be a dramatic event that finally forces each side towards sanity and compromise. For the 1939 Germans the dramatic event was the total destruction of their country. Before their defeat they saw military violence as a necessary evil but after having Berlin and  the rest of their country reduced to ruble they tried to re-build a society without creating a heavy dependence on the military. They were able to do this and feel good about themselves because the US military basically took over the responsibility of protecting West Germany against Soviet aggression at the end of WW2 and for most of the period known as the cold war.  Of course as time has gone by they have built up their military and in theory they could provide for their own defense but in practice they are still relying on the US to back them up when needed. Germany is not the only country in the world that assumes military help from the US will be forthcoming if they ever need it. Of course to actually come out and say this publicly is out of the question. Most of these countries are to busy criticizing and blaming the US for all of the world's ills. Due to this state of affairs I really doubt the US will be interested in backing up anyone except ourselves when the next world shattering cataclysm arrives.

9/11 could have been such an event that caused the civilized world to finally unite over the issue of international militant terrorism but instead it has only served to aggravate the situation further. 9/11 could have provided the necessary cover for even the most despotic regimes to come together in fighting world wide terrorism. It started off good but the major international players started to waffle on what actions to actually undertake to fight this scourge and then everything fell apart. The US wanted to use force to tackle the problem that people have been negotiating over for the past 60 years with no end in sight. Others wanted to stay away from using military force for various reasons and in the end we ended up back where we began. I have mentioned in previous posts that I believe violence can useful under the right circumstances and to rule out violence from the start removes one of the main motivations of all humans, which is to continue living. In the conflict to come it will not be another Iraq, Vietnam, or Afghanistan. It will be more like WW2 on steroids. The US scored total victory in WW2 by using nuclear weapons on Japan. There are people wringing their hands today about the morality of using those nukes but the people complaining were not watching their friends and loved ones being killed for over 5 years of brutal war. The hand wringers also dismiss that fact that had the US invaded Japan or even block aided Japan the number of casulaties would have exceeded those made by the nuclear bombs. The allies lost more soldiers during the storming of Normandy than we have lost in both Iraq and Afghanistan put together. Context and perspective is required when analyzing conflicts.  The Japanese were given the choice to surrender before the first bomb and before the second bomb and they declined both times. When they did finally surrender it was totally unconditional and we protected them from Soviet aggression and helped them re-build their country while the Japanese retained 100% sovereignty of their country. Compare that against the fate of East Germany and Poland.  

It's a shame that we allow a minority dictate our actions and initiate the conditions where force is required to support their warped agendas. I'm specifically talking about both the hard left and hard right extremists who are responsible for 99% of the hatred in today's world. These polar opposites both claim the truth as their own and if you don't agree you are considered an idiot. If we are to lessen the amount of destruction in the coming conflict I think we need to do several things to hopefully give civilization a chance of surviving the next round of madness.

1. The US needs to close all existing military bases unless the host country explicitly and openly requests their continued presence and are willing to pay the expenses. The US military is more than capable of deploying military power anywhere in the world if necessary. This will easily remove one issue of complaint leveled at the US and reduce tension.
2. The US needs to continue pushing alternative energy technologies to reduce our dependence on imported energy and help reduce carbon emissions in the environment. These actions will help reduce the level of tension with the volatile middle eastern oil providers and also reduce some of the acrimony of environmental activists. When our dependency on oil starts to decline the oil producing countries are going to panic. Most of them have no other means of generating revenue and the amount of foreign investment and foreign aid will decrease leading to even greater societal and economic ruin.  And after their past behavior I seriously doubt the average US citizen will give a damn about what happens to them.
3. In the spirit of information transparency the government and all of the political parties need to start publishing detailed reports on all corporations doing business in the US. Easy to understand information on profits, losses, jobs created in the US, jobs lost in the US, and a summary of the amount of taxes the corporation has paid. All of this information is available in the current corporation prospectives published for the corporate shareholders. This information just needs to be collected and published in a format that allows someone without a MBA to understand. All of the political groups are always attacking each other when in reality they really have very little impact on the societies economic well being. Shining the light on the real power brokers can help force them to change their behavior. I am not advocating more government regulation I am only advocating that the public be made aware  of how our corporations are really affecting our lives.
4. If the worst case scenario does happen and we become involved in wide ranging war of survival as a nation we need to commit ourselves to total war and destroy our enemies without hesitation. Trying to fight a "humane" war only lengthens the war and rarely results in less casualties.