No matter where in the world you look, China, Brazil, Europe, the U.S. or virtually anywhere else, the question from the people to their leaders is the same. What are you doing to get us “more”? For 10,000 years the average person hoped for enough just to stay alive. Getting “more” let alone a lot “more” was mostly a dream. Now we loudly voice our displeasure if there isn’t a constant increase in our “more.” What has been attained in “More” for those lower in the power pyramid in the last 400 years dwarfs what was accomplished in all those years before. Average people have gone from despair to our present expectations. It didn’t happen all at once. Even at the turn of the Nineteenth century, the vast majority of humanity was engaged in agriculture under some form of bondage. It may come as a surprise to some that at the founding of the United States ordinary people with any rights were rare while involuntary servitude was widespread. Starting in Western Civilization “More” had begun its journey down the pyramid. Like a rock tossed in a lake the ripples initially covered a small area but moving ever larger. Was this to become the norm for the next 10,00 years or an aberration?
Increase the special forces, send 10,000 no make it 50,000 or is it 100,000 troops to rid the world of ISIS or is it ISIL. Carpet bomb ’em till the desert glows. Our leaders seem to begun a bidding contest over who can commit the most our resources to obliterating this Islamist group. Others ask what exactly are our obligations in the Middle East and what action makes any sense. Over a year ago, we noted that our real obligations were limited to supporting our friends, the Israelis and the Kurds, helping minorities such as the Christians and Yazidis threatened with genocide and keeping trade routes open. To accomplish these we proposed a major Airbase or bases in Kurdistan from which could train, arm and protect those we were obligated to help. On the other hand, it isn’t our obligation to take in the refugees that the wider Muslim World has refused to do for decades. Arabs especially should’ve been pressured to take in their own. We have absolutely no obligation to aid the Baghdad government. They kicked us out and laid the groundwork for ISIL with their heavy boot on the Sunni. The same mistreatment of the Kurds makes any rapprochement there a mirage. No explanation of our actions is due Russia or China after their actions in Syria and the South China Sea. Kurdistan is the strategic high ground in the Middle East and is where we need to be.
Three innovations came to pass in the 15th century that forever changed the world and we are still coming to terms with what they wrought. It isn’t that we hadn’t used ships for trade, read books or loaned or borrowed money before, what changed was the volume. Before this century we could trade only a small fraction of what was possible by its end. Books were rare but after 1500 it was possible for families to own their own bibles. Commercial ventures could be financed with a worldwide outlook.
Detour on the Road 