The news these days is dominated by pretty much the same stories, suicide bombings and/or coalition “precision” bombings in Afghanistan/Pakistan, suicide bombing and/or coalition “precision” bombings in Iraq, suicide bombings and/or other bombings elsewhere on our wee planet, not to mention Iran telling Israel “go fuck yourself” while charging up the aul nuclear reactors and Israel responding “yeah? well you fuck yourself!” and everyone else saying “you can’t develop nuclear energy, only we can.” No matter where you look there’s some conflict ongoing; Haiti, Nigeria, Somalia, Tanzania, Pakistan, Colombia and a hundred other countries; The Ivory Coast, Eritrea & Ethiopia and North Sri Lanka are all on the brink of war. The present is fairly shitty and in my opinion the future might be a lot worse.
Perhaps i’m somewhat prone to the odd bout of depression but whenever I look to the future i’m seriously worried that things could get fairly nasty within a short few years. I’ll be the first to admit my grasp of international politics is not what it should be and my predictions for the future are only those of an average Joe but this situation with Iran and the ongoing war against ‘terrorism’ worry me.
What if Iran decides to build a nuclear stockpile, what then? What can be done? Can you reason with a hardliner like the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Will UN sanctions only piss them off more? Israel say they can’t allow a hostile nation like Iran to have nuclear weapons so what’s their plan? Invade Iran? With every second cunt and his uncle owning a gun in the region, a strong defence force and of course the possibility of nuclear weapons making up part of the arsenal any war with Iran is going to be a nightmare, whether the opponent is Israel or an international coalition we’d be looking at serious loss of life. If the US thinks Iraq is bad i’d imagine Iran would be a hundred times worse.
“This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table.” —George W. Bush, Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 22, 2005
The US’s “economic colonialism” and their actions in Iraq is pissing a lot of people off, especially those in the Muslim community. A colleague of mine, a Muslim from the Middle East, a very decent and level headed chap has come to detest the US (more specifically George Óg) and since the start of the Iraq war is no longer too keen on the UK. For a variety of reasons the US seems to have an issue with a whole host of nations across the globe. Even assuming we resolve differences with Iran will North Korea be the next war zone?
Our generation (uz in W.Europe) has been spared any serious conflict. Previous generations have had to suffer two world wars and a number of independence struggles, will the next generation, our kids, face the third world war? Will the war on terrorism escalate to a degree where we’re all targets of an invisible enemy living within our own borders? Or am I blowing this out of all proportions?
I’m off to take my anti-depressants.
I share your worry for the future. Something that struck me recently that we in the UK (I don’t say that very often) are more or less war at the moment and have been continiously for around 5 years with Afganistan and Iraq, but during all this our daily lives as citizens has been untouched.
I don’t know if this is something we should thank our government for as we don’t suffer rationing in anyway or have to blackout our windows like generations before us, or is it something we should worry about as the government can more or less hide the effects of war from us. It seems rather perverse to me.
Rhys: you may be at war, but it’s other people’s daily lives have been touched.
Maca – someone once told me that as you had kids, and they grew older, you tended to get more concerned about the future of the country/planet.
That being said, technology has changed things a lot. War reporting has a global reach, and the ease with which people can move around the world can bring trouble a lot closer. We know about trouble now, whereas even 80 years ago we might not hear about it immediately. I remember reading an account of how the explosion of Krakatoa reached the outside world via telegraph and how long it took and how it was one of the first global news stories.
I always felt that ever warmongerer should be made to visit (and perhaps stay in over night) the few remaining WW1 trenches in Belgium.
Israel isn’t exactly the calmest country on the planet and this guy Ahmadinejad seems positively nuts so bearing in mind these two counties could have nuclear weapons soon, I think we should be very afraid.
Dunno about you, but I’d be pretty relieved to see Israeli jets blowing Iran’s nuclear facilities to smithereens. Given that Iran currently suffers under the yoke of a despotic theocracy headed up by a president who wants to wipe another UN state “from the map”, I know whose side – as a democratic socialisist – I’m on.
yes just like northern Ireland ! How many years were Ireland fighting with the UK?????