EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN_AND AS DEADLY

THE GUNS OF AUGUST ...

The phrase usually refers to the incomprehensible (at the time) causes of World War I.

The main causes of World War I, which began in central Europe in late July 1914, included many factors, such as the conflicts and hostility between the great European powers of the eight decades leading up to the war.

Militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism played major roles in the conflict as well.

BORING HISTORY, RIGHT?

WRONG.  DEATHLY WRONG.

Will the phrase “Guns of August” one day refer not only to the prelude to World War I in 1914 but also to the prelude to a Middle East war in 2013?

That is the ominous question posed by Roger Boyes, the diplomatic editor of the Times of London and a foreign correspondent for the past 35 years.
“The direction of events in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Iran should keep us awake at night.

History is taking a dangerous turn,” he writes.

“The region certainly cannot sustain two wars — Syria’s bloody insurgency and a near-civil war in Egypt — without wrecking established peace treaties and the normal mechanisms for defusing conflict.”

Boyes warned that, as in August 1914, the world is not paying enough attention.

“In August 1914 there was a lot of grouse shooting going on.

In August 2013, politicians prefer to read doorstopper biographies in Tuscany and Cornwall.

Yet the spreading Middle East crisis, its multiple flashpoints, is every bit as ominous as the prelude to war in 1914.”

But that is half a world away, right?

Muslim terrorism may well erupt in our shopping malls next year because politicians did not pay attention. 

Hart Johnson is asking us
how we think the world will end.

THE GUNS OF AUGUST
may be the answer.

What do you think of this Syria, Egypt, Iran,
Iraq, Libyan, Lebanon, Israel crisis?

Same old, same old?
or
Too many nations going nova
all at once?