Seriously Sizing Up Syria Seizing Up (October 12, 2015)
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7 “They could make it easier if they wore jerseys with numbers.”
8 “The good folks could sport odd numbers and the bad folks could sport even numbers on their uniforms.”
7 “Or the good folks could use even numbers and the bad folks could use odd numbers. Or use different defining colors. Or stitch the sponsor of the team on the back of the jersey.”
8 “During the Southeast Asian War Games conducted in ‘nam, a ‘Stars and Stripes’ newspaper cartoon depicted two identical individuals in pajamas and flip flops – one described as ‘Friend’ and one described as ‘Enemy’.”
7 “Nothing changes. Discerning one’s friends and one’s enemies among those wearing towels and sandals is vexing.”
8 “The great feud between the Shia and the Sunni seems akin to the great feud between the Hatfields and McCoys. No one was right and no one really knew what they were fighting for and no one really knew why they were fighting.”
7 “The reality is that the enemy of my enemy is not my friend, the enemy of my enemy is my enemy.”
. . .
7 “Most folks are more comfortable with what the nerdy folks describe as a ‘Manichean’ division into good and bad, or right and wrong, or us and them. International relations are described as a balance of power and depicted with a scale. A pint of water on one side can be balanced with a pound of whatever on the other side. Yet international relations are more akin to multiple Calder mobiles strung and hung together. Tug on one string and everything tips out of balance. The unprovoked invasion of Iraq by then President Cheney and Vice President Bush in 2003 was the great tug that triggered the imbalance accelerating today.”
8 “Toss a rock in the pond and watch the concentric circles and the eccentric responses. The lack of water in Syria and other places is fueling the fury. A drought of water leads to a drought of hope. The world is transitioning from wars over oil to wars over water.”
7 “And wars over currency. Everything is out of balance.”
8 “Seems that global climate change is bringing about global change.”
. . .
8 “For the U.S., ‘Iraq’ is Arabic for ‘Vietnam’. For Russia, ‘Syria’ may be Arabic for ‘Afghanistan’.”
7 “‘Waterloo’ is French for ‘Waterloo’.”
8 “Or Esperanto for ‘quagmire’.”
. . .
7 “We make decisions with limited information. Look at who is for and who is against going to war. Former General Wesley Clark suggests that the United States seeks to take out Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran. The Neo-conservatives in America want the United States to be mired in constant war everywhere on the planet all the time. They keep getting us in trouble.”
8 “The bad folks. Do they have even or odd numbers? What color are their uniforms?”
. . .
7 “Much of the fighting is a prolonged currency war between the United States and many other countries. The United States is slowly losing the franchise on the world’s reserve currency.”
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[See the e-commentary at World’s Reserve Currency War I = Cold War 2.0 = WW III (?) (September 8, 2014) and Le Dollar – World’s Reserve Currency? (November 28, 2011).]
Bumper sticker of the week:
Are they doing the watusi when they should be doing the hokey pokey?
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