A Hard Rain is Coming to a World Near Us

VMAX  Forum

Help Support VMAX Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

SpecOps13

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2010
Messages
6,027
Reaction score
36
Location
Tampa Bay
A Hard Rain Is Going to Fall
September 28, 2016 9:46 am
victorhanson

World events seem relatively calm, but repeated appeasement has built up pressure across the globe, and someone has to be there when crisis erupts.

By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review

This summer, President Obama was often golfing. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were promising to let the world be. The end of summer seemed sleepy, the world relatively calm.

The summer of 1914 in Europe also seemed quiet. But on July 28, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip with help from his accomplices, fellow Serbian separatists. That isolated act sparked World War I.

In the summer of 1939, most observers thought Adolf Hitler was finally through with his serial bullying. Appeasement supposedly had satiated his once enormous territorial appetites. But on September 1, Nazi Germany unexpectedly invaded Poland and touched off World War II, which consumed some 60 million lives.

Wars often seem to come out of nowhere, as unlikely events ignite long-simmering disputes into global conflagrations.

The instigators often are weaker attackers who foolishly assume that more powerful nations wish peace at any cost, and so will not react to opportunistic aggression.

Unfortunately, our late-summer calm of 2016 has masked a lot of festering tensions that are now coming to a head * largely due to disengagement by a supposedly tired United States.

In contrast, war, unlike individual states, does not sleep.

Russia has been massing troops on its border with Ukraine. Russian president Vladimir Putin apparently believes that Europe is in utter disarray and assumes that President Obama remains most interested in apologizing to foreigners for the past evils of the United States. Putin is wagering that no tired Western power could or would stop his reabsorption of Ukraine * or the Baltic states next. Who in hip Amsterdam cares what happens to faraway Kiev?

Iran swapped American hostages for cash. An Iranian missile narrowly missed a U.S. aircraft carrier not long ago. Iranians hijacked an American boat and buzzed our warships in the Persian Gulf. There are frequent promises from Tehran to destroy either Israel, America, or both. So much for the peace dividend of the “Iran deal.”

North Korea is more than just delusional. Recent nuclear tests and missile launches toward Japan suggest that North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un actually believes that he could win a war * and thereby gain even larger concessions from the West and from his Asian neighbors.

Radical Islamists likewise seem emboldened to try more attacks on the premise that Western nations will hardly respond with overwhelming power. The past weekend brought pipe bombings in Manhattan and New Jersey as well as a mass stabbing in a Minnesota mall * and American frustration.

Europe and the United States have been bewildered by huge numbers of largely young male migrants from the war-torn Middle East. Political correctness has paralyzed Western leaders from even articulating the threat, much less replying to it.

Instead, the American government appears more concerned with shutting down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, ensuring that no administration official utters the words “Islamic terror,” and issuing warnings to Americans not to lash out due to their supposedly innate prejudices.

Aggressors are also encouraged by vast cutbacks in the U.S. defense budget. The lame-duck Obama presidency, lead-from-behind policies, and a culturally and racially divided America reflect voter weariness with overseas commitments.

It would be a mistake to assume that war is impossible because it logically benefits no one, or is outdated in our sophisticated 21st century, or would be insane in a world of nuclear weapons.

Human nature is unchanging and remains irrational. Evil is eternal. Unfortunately, appeasement is often seen by thugs not as magnanimity to be reciprocated but as timidity to be exploited.

Someone soon will have to tell the North Koreans that a stable world order cannot endure its frequent missile launches and nuclear detonations.

Someone could remind Putin that the former Soviet republics have a right to self-determination.

Someone might inform the Chinese that no one can plop down artificial islands and military bases to control commercial sea lanes.

Someone might make it clear to radical Islamic terrorists that there is a limit to Western patience with their chronic bombing, murdering, and destruction.

The problem is that there is no other “someone” (especially not the United Nations or the European Union) with the requisite power and authority except the United States. But for a long time America has done more than its fair share of international policing * and its people are tired of costly dragon-slaying abroad.

The result is that at this late date, the tough medicine of restoring long-term deterrence is almost as dangerous as the disease of continual short-term appeasement.

Obama apparently assumes he can leave office as a peacemaker before his appeased chickens come home to roost in violent fashion. He has assured us that the world has never been calmer and quieter.

Others said the same thing in the last calm summer weeks of 1914 and 1939.

War clouds are gathering. A hard rain is soon going to fall.
 
A Hard Rain Is Going to Fall
September 28, 2016 9:46 am
victorhanson

World events seem relatively calm, but repeated appeasement has built up pressure across the globe, and someone has to be there when crisis erupts.

By Victor Davis Hanson // National Review

This summer, President Obama was often golfing. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were promising to let the world be. The end of summer seemed sleepy, the world relatively calm.

The summer of 1914 in Europe also seemed quiet. But on July 28, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip with help from his accomplices, fellow Serbian separatists. That isolated act sparked World War I.

In the summer of 1939, most observers thought Adolf Hitler was finally through with his serial bullying. Appeasement supposedly had satiated his once enormous territorial appetites. But on September 1, Nazi Germany unexpectedly invaded Poland and touched off World War II, which consumed some 60 million lives.

Wars often seem to come out of nowhere, as unlikely events ignite long-simmering disputes into global conflagrations.

The instigators often are weaker attackers who foolishly assume that more powerful nations wish peace at any cost, and so will not react to opportunistic aggression.

Unfortunately, our late-summer calm of 2016 has masked a lot of festering tensions that are now coming to a head * largely due to disengagement by a supposedly tired United States.

In contrast, war, unlike individual states, does not sleep.

Russia has been massing troops on its border with Ukraine. Russian president Vladimir Putin apparently believes that Europe is in utter disarray and assumes that President Obama remains most interested in apologizing to foreigners for the past evils of the United States. Putin is wagering that no tired Western power could or would stop his reabsorption of Ukraine * or the Baltic states next. Who in hip Amsterdam cares what happens to faraway Kiev?

Iran swapped American hostages for cash. An Iranian missile narrowly missed a U.S. aircraft carrier not long ago. Iranians hijacked an American boat and buzzed our warships in the Persian Gulf. There are frequent promises from Tehran to destroy either Israel, America, or both. So much for the peace dividend of the “Iran deal.”

North Korea is more than just delusional. Recent nuclear tests and missile launches toward Japan suggest that North Korean strongman Kim Jong-un actually believes that he could win a war * and thereby gain even larger concessions from the West and from his Asian neighbors.

Radical Islamists likewise seem emboldened to try more attacks on the premise that Western nations will hardly respond with overwhelming power. The past weekend brought pipe bombings in Manhattan and New Jersey as well as a mass stabbing in a Minnesota mall * and American frustration.

Europe and the United States have been bewildered by huge numbers of largely young male migrants from the war-torn Middle East. Political correctness has paralyzed Western leaders from even articulating the threat, much less replying to it.

Instead, the American government appears more concerned with shutting down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, ensuring that no administration official utters the words “Islamic terror,” and issuing warnings to Americans not to lash out due to their supposedly innate prejudices.

Aggressors are also encouraged by vast cutbacks in the U.S. defense budget. The lame-duck Obama presidency, lead-from-behind policies, and a culturally and racially divided America reflect voter weariness with overseas commitments.

It would be a mistake to assume that war is impossible because it logically benefits no one, or is outdated in our sophisticated 21st century, or would be insane in a world of nuclear weapons.

Human nature is unchanging and remains irrational. Evil is eternal. Unfortunately, appeasement is often seen by thugs not as magnanimity to be reciprocated but as timidity to be exploited.

Someone soon will have to tell the North Koreans that a stable world order cannot endure its frequent missile launches and nuclear detonations.

Someone could remind Putin that the former Soviet republics have a right to self-determination.

Someone might inform the Chinese that no one can plop down artificial islands and military bases to control commercial sea lanes.

Someone might make it clear to radical Islamic terrorists that there is a limit to Western patience with their chronic bombing, murdering, and destruction.

The problem is that there is no other “someone” (especially not the United Nations or the European Union) with the requisite power and authority except the United States. But for a long time America has done more than its fair share of international policing * and its people are tired of costly dragon-slaying abroad.

The result is that at this late date, the tough medicine of restoring long-term deterrence is almost as dangerous as the disease of continual short-term appeasement.

Obama apparently assumes he can leave office as a peacemaker before his appeased chickens come home to roost in violent fashion. He has assured us that the world has never been calmer and quieter.

Others said the same thing in the last calm summer weeks of 1914 and 1939.

War clouds are gathering. A hard rain is soon going to fall.

+1

Too many people seem to be able to easily shrug this off as so much noise or even have no real idea whats going on beyond our own borders, and how our current leadership has so horribly mismanaged some really serious crisis situations by being a giant gaping pussy. We needed to be flexing some military muscle instead of doing things like multinational apology tours. We showed weakness by putting our worst foot forward (Obama). The Obama administration has done significant and irreversible damage while putting us all at great risk.

Its as if many of us rarely crack open international or world news while bursting with ethnocentric pride that keeps us thinking nothing outside the USA effects us or that no other nation would dare touch us. The complacency so many of us show is downright stunning. We are at odds with some very powerful foes and war seems all but inevitable with the stage set as it is. We cant put this shit back in the dog, even with good leadership (which is not what we're going to get). I wonder what % of Americans realize how precarious out situation is and what it means when we end up at war, quite possibly with more than one nation. Saying we have our hands full is a gross understatement.

Lets add to the list the very high potential for revolution on our own soil, we need revolution badly, we just dont need it now with all these other threats looming off our shores.
If none of this is scary enough just remember that Hillary's presidency is almost a certainty and remember what a dismal failure she has been in every public office she has held.

Hard rain coming. Uummm yea! I think thats safe to say.
 
Very Well Put Brother. It'll be a War that will End All Wars when it comes.
God, Guns and Guts made and kept us free. Only God can save us from this
and I don't think that's in his plan anytime soon..
 
I myself am very fearful, and slightly depressed about the future. Everything is supposed to be about balance.

I fear that with the upcoming election, the tipping point will be reached, and there will be no coming back from it.
 
I myself am very fearful, and slightly depressed about the future. Everything is supposed to be about balance.

I fear that with the upcoming election, the tipping point will be reached, and there will be no coming back from it.

Unfortunately this seems to be the fear of many that are paying attention, myself included. Im planning for the worst and hoping for some sort of reprieve. In the meantime all we can do is dust off our bug-out bags, vote, and live life.

We've known for 8 years that this administration would end very badly, Who was it that promised America change?
 
Unfortunately this seems to be the fear of many that are paying attention, myself included. Im planning for the worst and hoping for some sort of reprieve. In the meantime all we can do is dust off our bug-out bags, vote, and live life.

We've known for 8 years that this administration would end very badly, Who was it that promised America change?

I agree with both of you. This may be our last election. Democrats are so embedded in all of our Agencies and Organizations that we'll likely never get them all out. Wish there was another Republican at the Top of the Ticket. Somebody we could believe really respected the Constitution. It is what it is though. We're likely Screwed either way. Just in different ways.:bang head:
 
I fear our world could change in a blink. Our power grid ever goes down the world we live in will be quite different than it is right now. Call me a pessimist, but I'd rather be prepared than screwed. My better half is like a lot of Americans that don't even contemplate the way things can change. Food gets scarce and the way people act will take a turn for the very worst. The riots and looting we see now will be nothing like what can happen. Pesky garden wrecking squirrels could be coveted food around here. I pray I never witness it, nor our future generations have to either.
 
The democratic party has pretty clearly demonstrated a fundamental lack of what it takes to serve this country in a way to keep its citizens safe and functional. The republican party bears some responsibility for our current landscape as well but at least there is a grasp on foreign affairs and a small twist of fiscal responsibility making it a superior choice, but both parties have been up to the plate and yet here we are.

Assuming that in 5 years we are still alive and not speaking Chinese, perhaps we can rethink this far right (lodged in the 1950s) and far left (lodged in some sort of logic defying sci-fi nightmare) and try something new and pragmatic. Weve seen what has failed, but what might work?
 

Latest posts

Back
Top