War Weary

The Forecast:  Two major geopolitical trend lines will be drawn in 2015: Support more wars or fight for peace.

What course will be taken? Which will prove successful? What countries will wage more war? Which countries will wage peace? Will fighting for peace be seen as heroic? Or will joining forces with politicians, the military and defense experts to fight more wars continue to be honored as patriotic?

Manipulated economies in the US and across the globe keep the majority of their populations struggling to make ends meet and maintain a decent quality of life — all while trillions are poured into senseless wars.

Can a collective mindset that emphasizes community building conquer the miserable failures of wars designed to build nations elsewhere? One positive indication for the institute is the 2014 birth of Occupy Peace. It was created, in large part, by Trends Journal subscribers throughout the world who believe the time has come for a different type of peace initiative, one based on an action plan and supported by the core concept of building communities here, not nations elsewhere. And that’s good business.

Update: Superpower America is leading the charge to war, and there is no end in sight.

Remember President Obama’s promise in May 2014 to end combat operations in Afghanistan by the end of 2014? Recall his pledge that troop levels would be cut in half by the end of 2015?

Remember when Backtrack Barack broke his promises? In March 2015, the president announced no troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, and his newly minted defense secretary, Ashton Carter, declared the US would continue to fund the Afghan Security Forces at least into 2017 — at a cost of $4 billion per year.

Beyond the nearly 14-year Afghan War — the longest in American history, one that has cost $700 billion, including more than $35 billion in fiscal year 2015 — there are steady streams of US drone strikes, bombing raids, firefights, night raids and assorted military actions and maneuvers.

A “we have to kill them over there, before they kill us over here” military mindset rules America — whether it concerns Yemen, Syria, Libya, Iraq or Pakistan; the Middle East or whatever African country Washington targets; whether it’s in the name of toppling dictators, supporting friendly dictators and/or killing terrorists, militants, al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, ISIL, ISIS or their “affiliates.”

The business of America is nonstop war, both hot and cold — whether it’s training troops in Ukraine to fight Russian separatists, running NATO and US troop drills with nations abutting Russia’s border or pivoting to Asia in a show of naval force in the South China Sea.

And while Uncle Sam still holds the superpower war crown, throughout Africa — Mali, Sudan, Congo, Somalia, Egypt, Nigeria, Eritrea, Burundi, Ivory Coast, etc. — civil wars, cross-border wars, insurgencies and uprisings tear apart much of the continent.