'Thucydides trap' Approach Avoidance? Civilization 'Higher' Is Measured In Culture, IE "Art" Determines The Civilized Culture & America?

"These days the United States absolves itself of any responsibility to finish wars that it starts," writes Andrew J. Bacevich. (Edel Rodriguez / For The Times / January 11, 2014)

 

The U.S. military is like the highly skilled, gadget-toting contractor who promises to give your kitchen a nifty makeover in no time whatsoever. Here's the guy you can count on to get the job done. Just look at those references! Yet by the time he drives off months later, the kitchen's a shambles and you're stuck with a bill several times larger than the initial estimate. Turns out the job was more complicated than it seemed. But what say we take a crack at remodeling the master bath?

 

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-bacevich-failed-wars-20140112,0,5920178.story#axzz2qCqYfyRk 

 

“Weaker” and “Failed States”: A Threat to America

In a twist logic, “weaker failed states”, according to the US Congress, are said to constitute a threat to the security of the US. The latter includes “several threats emanating from states that are variously described as weak, fragile, vulnerable, failing, precarious, failed, in crisis, or collapsed“.

As the Cold War concluded in the early 1990s, analysts became aware of an emerging international security environment, in which weak and failing states became vehicles for transnational organized crime, nuclear proliferation pathways, and hot spots for civil conflict and humanitarian emergencies. The potential U.S. national security threats weak and failing states pose became further apparent with Al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, attack on the United States, which Osama bin Laden masterminded from the safe haven that Afghanistan provided. The events of 9/11 prompted President George W. Bush to claim in the 2002 U.S. National Security Strategy that “weak states, like Afghanistan, can pose as great a danger to our national interests as strong states.” (Weak and Failing States: Evolving Security, Threats and U.S. Policy, CRS Report for the US Congress, Washington, 2008)

What is not mentioned in this Congressional CRS report is that the “hot spots of organized crime and civilian conflict” are the result of US covert intelligence operations.

Amply documented, the Afghan drug economy which generates over 90 percent of the World’s supply of heroin is tied into a multibillion dollar money laundering operation involving major financial institutions.  The drug trade out of Afghanistan  is protected by the CIA and US-NATO occupation forces.
 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/destroying-countries-transforming-syria-into-a-failed-state/5317160 

 

France and Japan agreed to cooperate on military and economic issues after Japan’s foreign and defense ministers visited Paris for “two-plus-two” talks with their French counterparts on Thursday.

Speaking in Paris, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said, “The agreement will open up a new dimension for our cooperation on security and defense.”

Paris and Tokyo agreed to set up a joint committee to discuss the development of military equipment and management of weapons exports.

Japan is reportedly interested in particular in French military technology such as next-generation helicopters, submarine propulsion and underwater drones.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/france-japan-form-alliance-targeting-chinese-influence-in-africa/5364703

Why the Washington Post’s New Ties to the CIA Are So Ominous

American journalism has entered highly dangerous terrain. By Norman Solomon Global Research, January 13, 2014 

A tip-off is that the Washington Post refuses to face up to a conflict of interest involving Jeff Bezos — who’s now the sole owner of the powerful newspaper at the same time he remains Amazon’s CEO and main stakeholder.

The Post is supposed to expose CIA secrets. But Amazon is under contract to keep them. Amazon has a new $600 million “cloud” computing deal with the CIA.

The situation is unprecedented. But in an email exchange early this month, Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron told me that the newspaper doesn’t need to routinely inform readers of the CIA-Amazon-Bezos ties when reporting on the CIA. He wrote that such in-story acknowledgment would be “far outside the norm of disclosures about potential conflicts of interest at media organizations.”

But there isn’t anything normal about the new situation. As I wrote to Baron, “few journalists could have anticipated ownership of the paper by a multibillionaire whose outside company would be so closely tied to the CIA.”

http://www.globalresearch.ca/why-the-washington-posts-new-ties-to-the-cia-are-so-ominous/5364709

 Can We Avoid the “Thucydides Trap” with China?
Top economic advisers are forecasting war and unrest.
They give the following reasons for their forecast:

• Countries start wars to distract their populations from lousy economies

• Currency and trade wars end up turning into shooting wars

• The U.S. is still seeking to secure oil supplies, and the U.S. doesn’t like any country to leave the dollar standard

http://www.globalresearch.ca/geopolitics-currency-and-trade-wars-why-the-risk-of-world-war-is-rising/5364668

Avoiding the 'Thucydides trap'

By Zhao Jinglun China.org.cn, June 8, 2013

Chinese President Xi Jinping (1st R) meets with U.S. President Barack Obama (1st L) at the Annenberg Retreat, California, the United States, June 7, 2013. Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, met Friday to exchange views on major issues of common concern. [Lan Hongguang/Xinhua]

 

Thucydides, the Athenian historian whose tome on the Peloponnesian War has ruined many a college freshman’s weekend. The line they had to remember for the test was his conclusion: 'What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.' 

 

The eyes of the world are on Sunnylands, a California ranch also known as the "Camp David of the West," where leaders of two of the globe's most important countries are having a historic meeting that could affect the future of mankind.

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2013-06/08/content_29071153.htm

[sidebar:  A sentient being would look at this and know the reality can't be other than the reality of WAR because the culture of art hasn't been practiced to co-create the higher civilization, as a worthwhile discipline in self-control.  U$A and China, Russia, Et Al aren't enlightened countries or we would not be at this crossroads in Century XXI]

... to be continued ....