The New World Order

     In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and Germany started the rather difficult process of reunification, which owing to their organizational ability, they were able to accomplish with minimal problems, considering the vast differences that existed between the East and West.  Today, the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, is a former East German, that's how well Germany managed the reunification and integration of the East and West. 
     In 1991 the Soviet Union fell apart, overnight it disappeared!  With the fall of the Soviet Union, the rest of the Iron Curtain literally came crashing down.  However, the integration of the former communist bloc countries into the free world was not as easy or peaceful as it was in Germany.  The Balkan countries split up into pieces and conflicts began all over.  The ethnic and religious conflicts lasted for years and still linger!  In the former Soviet Union the economy was in shambles and people were really struggling.  The new Russian Federation appeared to be incapable of a smooth transition into a non-communist system.  Boris Yeltsin, the first Russian president tried, but old habits die hard.  The former Soviet nomencultura, the oligarchy, simply changed its appearance, sort of.  Who said that leopards can't change their spots!  Only now, more than 20 years later, is Russia seemingly pulling out of the economic mess.
     The world is not the same any more.  Whereas in the past there were two super powers, United States and the Soviet Union, and two distinct ideological systems, the "free world" and the communist bloc, today it is more of a technological and economic separation, the "haves and the have nots."  Within this separation, there are the Islamic Extremists and the West!  It is, to some extent, a repetition of the Holy Wars of the past, the Christians against the Muslims, but not quite the same way.  It is much more of a socio-economic/ideological struggle than a religious war.  To put it another way, it is a class war.
     The Islamic Extremists made their first appearance a long time ago.  But in the modern era, it was more or less around 1959 when Al Fattah, the Palestinian organization was founded and in 1964, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) came into being.  The PLO founder, Yassar Arafat, even back in those days, was simply a gun toting terrorist, nothing more.  How times change.  In his first appearance before the UN in the 1970s, Arafat spoke before the UN with a .45 stuck in his belt!  Today he would not have been allowed into the building armed like that!  In 1970 the Black September Group was founded.  This infamous terrorist organization was the one that carried out the massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes in the 1972 Munich Olympics.  The world in general was first exposed to Islamic Terrorists at that time, although there were other terror acts that were carried out, especially in the Middle East.  In 1979 the United States was first exposed to Islamic Terrorist act when the so-called Iranian "students" stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held hostage Americans for 444 days!  The world was stunned!  The Iranians under Ayatollah Khomeni had no regard for international law, international conventions!  They made their own law!  Shortly, other Islamic Terrorist organizations cropped up, Hezobollah (sponsored by Iran) in 1985 and Hamas in 1988 in the so-called East Bank where the Palestinian Authority was ruled by Yassar Arafat.
     There were several Islamic terrorist attacks against America, but it was all abroad and seemed distant, and Americans in general forgot them quickly.  Remember the bombing of the plane over Lockerbie?  The bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebannon?  The killing of the Marine Colonel in Lebanon?  All this took place in the 1980s.  There were also bombings of bars and cafes in Europe that catered to American clientele, but again, most Americans hardly paid attention.  Then in the 1990s the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York which was the first terror attack on U.S. soil by Islamic terrorists. But it was thought of as sort of an anomaly.  Then it was followed by two bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.  American lives were lost in Nairobi, and the name Al Qaeda surfaced.  There were other attacks that the American public hardly noticed. The gunning down of a van with U.S. Consulate employees by heavily armed gunmen in Peshawar, Pakistan.  Four Americans were killed in that attack.  The ambush of an Embassy shuttle van in Cairo where three Americans were killed.  There were numerous attacks in the 1980s and 90s, mostly in Islamic countries.  It was a clear sign of things to come.  The 9/11 actually made Americans aware that we were not really safe just because we were far away from the Middle East!  The recent San Bernardino killings only reinforced that!
     With the demise of the Soviet Union and the "Eastern Bloc" of countries, America became the lone remaining super power.  Unfortunately, with the new position, new responsibility befell on the United States.  We became the "policemen" of the world.  We became the only power that could quell troubles and other disturbances around the world.  It is a role that perhaps we did not want or seek, but it is something that came with the job, so to speak. But in a way it was a role that we indeed asked for because we had been striving to be the top dog, the most powerful country in the world.  Now we got our wish.  The only problem is that our government is reluctant to take up the role, and the general voting public in America does not want that role!
     The average American voter is interested primarily in his/her personal well being.  It is only natural, that is what human beings have been doing since the beginning of time!  The average person, be it an American or any other nationality, is interested in their well-being, their families fortunes.  For many, what takes place outside of their immediate area is of no concern.  Believe it or not, many really are not that concerned with what happens outside of their county or state, let alone some far away place across the ocean!  You can understand then, the resistance that comes to surface when the government decides to spend money somewhere else on foreign aid, etc.  It is a perfectly understandable feeling and emotion.  The government should take care of its own rather than waste money outside!  But unfortunately, things aren't that simple, especially if your country happens to be the "reigning" super power.
     It is no longer possible to be an isolationist.  There are folks who believe that we can just pull out of the world community and just take care of ourselves.  We don't need anyone else, it is a very popular refrain.  Small wonder the phenomenon of "survivalists" and "preppers" is thriving in America today.  But the last time America could have possibly survived as an isolationist country was in the 19th Century, before the time of our Civil War!  Things changed so rapidly that by the time of First World War, it was impossible for America to be an isolationist, as much as we wanted to be!  World War Two and our dominance after the war changed everything completely.  Now, whether we like it or not, we are very much a part of the rest of the world.  The global economy is such that everyone is inter-dependent on each other.  We may have all the oil reserves that we need under our soil, but we still need the rest of the world for us to continue as we are.  I suppose we could become isolationists and cut ourselves off from the rest of the world.  But I don't think anybody, not even those who are championing isolationism would like the new America with no outside contact!
     So what does this mean?  It means that we have to engage in solving problems around the world, even if it means going to war!  Yes, going to war!  There will be wars from now on for many years to come.  Currently it is the Islamic Extremism, the Islamic Terrorists that are causing all the problem.  Al Qaeda, ISIS/ISIL, and many other off-shoots are all fighting a class war.  They use religion, in this case Islam, as an excuse.  It is a way for them to recruit and convince people to follow them.  Essentially it is an anti-"westernism" because it is the western world that has the money, the technology, and has for centuries, exploited some of the lesser developed countries.  America being the biggest and the richest has become the main target!  The Iranians call us the "Great Satan" and ISIS/ISIL has taken to calling us "Rome" referring to the great Roman Empire that eventually fell!
     So far we have done a lousy job of being the world "leader."  We made a mess of the "Arab Spring" when all those uprisings took place.  We should have been more engaged, but instead we took the "wait and see" approach.  Well, we now "see" what that led to!  Putin is using our indecisiveness and lack of leadership to gain foothold and prestige.  Russia is fully engaged in Syria.  they may not come out a winner, but they have gained tremendous ground with Arabs and believe it or not, with some Europeans as well.  They have shown that they will help their "friend," in this case Al-Assad.  They just bombed and killed the main leader of the "moderate" rebel group, Zahran Alloush who was our main hope to take over if Al-Assad was removed!  Well, that's not going to happen now!
     In this new "world order,"  there will be other wars just like the one in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.  Our leaders are reluctant to put American troops on the ground because lives will be lost and the voting public will be upset, meaning the politicians will lose votes!  But if we want to remain the leader in this new world order, we have to participate in these wars with boots on the ground, not with just bombing!  Using proxies is not the answer, and training locals does not always work, as you can see by what is going on in Iraq.  It has to be American troops, that means American casualties.  But that is just the fact of today's world order.  If we refuse to participate in the world order and commit American troops, then we should just become isolationists and give up our position as the pre-eminent power in the world, we can't have both.  We can't not risk American lives and participate in ground combat and remain the super power.  If we don't want to pay the price,  in that case, we should give up the role and hand it to Russia, who is the only power left that could fill the vacuum and will be only too happy to take our place.