A shift in priorities...

Y'all put you're happy faces on cause today I'd like to chat about how the middle east could spark a global war and how this realization, along with a couple of others, has caused me to shift the priorities in my life as well as this blog. Today's lesson: Nearly all the countries in the Middle East are heavily connected to the major "world power" nations due to the oil market (I'll get to the economic interconnectedness of everybody in a minute). We are allied with Israel (because we had a hand in the creation of the modern nation of Israel), Saudi Arabia (allegedly), Afghanistan (allegedly), and a few others. Syria, for some reason, has close ties with Russia and Iran and China get along quite well on an economic level. Iran and Israel... well, everybody and Israel, don't get along. In fact, Muslims tend to think Jews are literally the scum of the earth and should not be allowed continued existence in any form. This situation is rife with nasty possible scenarios for large-scale ugliness. Here's one... Scenario: Iran continues to refuse to stop their nuclear program (which they claim is for power uses only... rrrriiiight) and Israel decides it's in their best interest to destroy said program. Israel launches an attack, either by air or Special Forces on the ground. Iran, understandably, is pissed and launches a counter-attack. At this point is where the dominoes begin to fall. We have treaty obligations to Israel so we would have to enter this fray in one way or another. This would greatly piss off the arab nations openly friendly with Iran (which is most of them) and draw them into the conflict (though, through support of terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, and others those countries would have been involved behind the scenes from the get-go). To give you an idea of what this means, Egypt is now controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, Iraq, in our absence, has become a puppet state of Iran, Syria, despite their internal conflict, is no friend of ours either, and there are several smaller nations who will also jump in on the arab side of the equation. Now, if we, and through treaty obligations (UN and NATO) other western nations, most likely France, Germany, and England, become fully committed to the defense of Israel, even the combined might of all the muslim arab nations could not win. They know this. Which, I believe, is why they allied themselves with Russia and China. We mobilize, they ask for help, Russia and China see a potential economic (read: oil supply) catastrophe and they, along with a few of their current and former allies, Vietnam, North Korea, some of the former Soviet states, come a-runnin to defend their interests and, bingo bango bongo... World War III. But wait, there's more. Now, a lot of the nations involved in this nightmare have large amounts of nuclear weapons. This, in itself, is not necessarily frightening because the Cold War ended recently enough that the leadership of the major nuclear players, Russia, China, and the U.S., remember the old doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (or MAD ...fitting acronym, ain't it?), which states, in a nutshell, "you nuke me, I'll nuke you more". So, the chances of Russia or China pressing The Button (or China letting North Korea do it) are pretty slim cause it wouldn't be I their self-interest. Enter Mahmoud Ahmedinejad... who has been quoted as saying he believes that he is to be instrumental in bringing about Armageddon. Now, this is just my semi-educated, humble opinion but, I'd ne willing to bet good money that ,nine times out of ten, when a small country like Iran gets a nuke, it's because they reverse-engineered it. Which means they already have one or more and are looking to build more (side note: after the collapse of the Soviet Union, several nuclear warheads and related material went "missing"). MAD would have no real affect on someone like ol' Mahmoud because he's already MAD as a fucking hatter and doesn't care if he, his country or the entire region are nuked into the 14th dimension because he believes it's his Allah-given duty to bring about the End of Days (which in their book, oddly enough, means the global dominion of Islam). I don't know that the western nations would let him draw us in to a nuclear exchange but, if he were to wait until we had troops on the ground and fried some of our boys, we might. He lobs a nuke, we lob a nuke and eventually it's "Old McDonald Had a Cruise Missile" (ee aye, ee aye, oh shit!) all over the world, here a nuke, there a nuke, everywhere a nuke nuke. Sorry bout the gallows humor, I'm tired and surly. Anywho, this is just one possible dust-up but, it should be obvious how any real turmoil in that region could seriously interrupt the world oil supply and, since EVERYTHING is moved from place to place on rivers and oceans of petroleum derivatives, this could cripple economic systems and even whole societies around the world. The System, the world System not just ours has gotten far too big to sustain itself in the face a true global crisis. Our supply lines are immensely long (don't think so? Check your fridge and pantry and see where your food comes from. I'll bet ya it ain't the farm down the road) and, as any military leader can tell you, long supply lines are easily cut. What do you think will happen to our sweet, orderly American society when that happens? More on that in a bit. For now, as promised, I bring the Reason for the Interconnectedness of All Nations. The only real reason all the major nations in the world have gotten along as well as we have for as long as we have is because there is an economic version of MAD. Through international trade the economies of pretty much every country with a viable military are so dependent on each other that if one starts waving its cock around, the others can embargo it into submission or, in the case of an actual act of war by one or two of them the others could be counted on to defend the attackee because it would be in their economic best interest. Great idea. Except for not really. If one of those countries say... us, goes off it's fucking rocker and bankrupts itself on purpose, it could feasibly drag down the entire world system. This would cause severe shortages, or at least supply interruptions, in vital goods and services throughout the world which would inevitably lead to the aforementioned World War III. Now, whichever way it happens, the parlor games of the World Elite can only end one way for the yous and the mes. Badly. Politicians, Royals, dictators... they all love the same thing. Power. Power with a capital P. Crow's First Law of Politics: An object in Power tends to try and stay in Power at all costs and all other considerations be damned. All lip service to the General Welfare of their respective nations aside, when the Shit Hits The Fan ( SHTF... that's a good acronym... someone should use that...) our benevolent leaders will use everything at their disposal, from begging and pleading, to lies and propaganda, to out and out violence, to keep themselves and their cronies in positions of Power. You do not even enter into their equations except as a possible threat to their Power. Which brings us to my priority shift. Here goes, I have long been interested in politics and, as this blog would attest, I'm firmly Libertarian with a slight Republican (the form of government, not the party) bent. I am a strict Constitutionalist and would dearly love to see this country brought back into line with the Founders intent. Unfortunately, I no longer think of that as a possiblilty and therefore will no longer focus on politics in this blog or in daily life. The System, like our national debt is too big to ever be fixed. It must be allowed to eat itself (hopefully before it eats all of us) and rebuilt from the much-vaunted grassroots up. If and when that happens, then it will be time to discuss the relative merits of Republics, Democracies, or PTAs. For now, I feel it necessary to share what I see as What Must Be Done to survive SHTF. I'm going to be posting blogs and links on such diverse elements as survival, prepping, food storage, subsistence farming, hunting, firearms, and anything else that strikes me as useful. I know there are several folks already doing this and I hope to able to add something to the good work they're doing and maybe become part of something mutually beneficial. If you're among the Awake, I ask you to come along for the ride and share what you know. If you're not, then I beg you to not dismiss what I've said just because it hasn't happened yet. Just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it can't or won't. Start watching the news, online is best, because the MSM won't talk about much of real importance. It's coming, folks. I won't pretend to know when but I feel in my gut that it's time to get ready to hunker down and do what you can to feed and protect you and yours. Hopefully we'll all come out on our feet when the dust settles. Till next time... I fight, not because I hate my enemy, but because I love my people. Big love, dc.