HAPPY NEW YEAR?

I’ve written a couple of times about how I believe that 2011 will be a strange year. Maybe I should say that it will very likely be a year to remember … just as 2001, 1968, 1941, and 1776 are all years which standout in history. In each of those years, peoples’ perceptions of each other, their countries, and the world were significantly changed forever. I think 2011 will become one of those years.

January 2011 hasn’t even ended and we’ve seen historical incidents take place here in the U.S. and around the world. Suicide bombings have taken place in Russia and Egypt. A terrible shooting in Arizona was turned into a political spectacle that will carry on through out the rest of this year as one political faction uses the tragedy to vilify the other. Europe is reeling in a financial quagmire and the nations of the Middle East are in turmoil … not just in Egypt, but everywhere … Israel, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, etc., are all in distress in one way or another.

Tensions are high in the Middle East and no one is safe. Muslims are angry at their governments, but they are angry at the United States as well. The extremists point to our nation and to Israel as the root of all evil … never mind that Muslims are being and have been oppressed primarily by other Muslims. Be it Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, or Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, you name the Middle Eastern dictatorship and you will find a Muslim in charge … not a Jew or an American.

Some will say that it is the United States that has kept these dictators in place … that is only partially true. Every nation, including those in the Middle East, has its own political ruling class … and they are who are responsible for the government. The nations of the Middle East are ruled by way of a monarchy or a dictatorship. There is only one nation in the region that has a functioning track record as a democracy … and that one isn’t Iraq. To blame the U.S. for the sorry state of public affairs in the region is like blaming conservatives for the actions of a lunatic gunman in Arizona. You can make the argument, but it doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. Nations, just like people, are responsible for their own actions.

The year is still young I can hardly wait to see what February will bring.

There you have it
Pass it along if you like or let me know it I don’t have a clue.

Eddie