The global economic meltdown has already caused bank failures, bankruptcies, plant closings, and foreclosures and will, in the coming year, leave many tens of millions unemployed across the planet. But another perilous consequence of the crash of 2008 has only recently made its appearance: increased civil unrest and ethnic strife. Someday, perhaps, war may follow.
As people lose confidence in the ability of markets and governments to solve the global crisis, they are likely to erupt into violent protests or to assault others they deem responsible for their plight, including government officials, plant managers, landlords, immigrants, and ethnic minorities. (The list could, in the future, prove long and unnerving.) If the present economic disaster turns into what President Obama has referred to as a “lost decade,” the result could be a global landscape filled with economically-fueled upheavals.
Indeed, if you want to be grimly impressed, hang a world map on your wall and start inserting red pins where violent episodes have already occurred. Athens (Greece), Longnan (China), Port-au-Prince (Haiti), Riga (Latvia), Santa Cruz (Bolivia), Sofia (Bulgaria), Vilnius (Lithuania), and Vladivostok (Russia) would be a start. Many other cities from Reykjavik, Paris, Rome, and Zaragoza to Moscow and Dublin have witnessed huge protests over rising unemployment and falling wages that remained orderly thanks in part to the presence of vast numbers of riot police. If you inserted orange pins at these locations — none as yet in the United States — your map would already look aflame with activity. And if you’re a gambling man or woman, it’s a safe bet that this map will soon be far better populated with red and orange pins.
By one estimate, the six days of riots caused $1.3 billion in damage to businesses at the height of the Christmas shopping season in Greece cities.
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There are several army brigades ready. The 1st Brigade Combat Team of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, has spent most of the last four years fighting a war in Iraq, and will now be assigned on a permanent basis to engage in numerous domestic functions -- including, "to help with civil unrest and crowd control."
ReplyDeleteDoc,
ReplyDeleteYou wrote: "Army's 3rd Infantry Division, has spent most of the last four years fighting a war in Iraq."
How many dead Americans will we see when the sonambulistic but finally rebelling Americans hit the streets -- when they have nothing else left to lose?
Posse Comitatus was flushed down the toilet, right?
I am confident that the US Military will ultimately NOT turn against their own citizens...one advantage of an all voluntary military.
ReplyDeletedon't count on that. They have to eat too.
ReplyDelete