Living in this great land of liberty and freedom, we may not appreciate the comfort zone in which we live. To sound an alert to some of the events that probably hasn’t affected our lives in any material way, here are some recent headlines and comments from several sources including one of our nation’s leading newspapers, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
A headline on May13th said this, “Hackers Launch Global Assault.” The article mentions that Fed Ex was a victim of the attack as were 16 hospitals and clinics that had to cancel appointments and divert ambulances in Britain. Brazil’s social security agency servers were closed as a preventive measure. According to the article, malware turned up in 74 countries as reported by an antivirus company in Russia. This ‘malware’ called WannaCry is a ransomware program that infects computers and holds them hostage for ransom payments.
According to a later issue of the WSJ, about 202 ransom payments had been made to the hackers totaling some $51,000 over the first couple weeks. Technology experts are attempting to locate the first computer infected, thus aiding searchers to trace the source. Some of us, being cynical might believe the hacking and financial rewards may be going into the stash of terrorists who have an insatiable thirst for money.
A headline in the WSJ of June 1, about two weeks ago was, “Kabul Bomb Sows Carnage.” The article below the headline mentions that at least 90 people were killed, more than 400 injured and hospitals were overflowing with patients in this city of 4½ million residents. An Afghan intelligence agency assigned responsibility to ‘The Haqqani Network’, a suspected unit of ‘The Taliban.’
Afghanistan is an Islamic Republic of about 32 million people (less than California) and an area slightly smaller than Texas (251,000 SM). Here are some statistics about Afghanistan; 80% of residents are Sunni Muslim while 20% are Shia Muslim and just 11.9% of the land is arable. Presumably this means that there are two social classes of serfs; those who live and work in cities (majority) and farmers (minority who live on the arable land).
As recently as 1998, the Taliban gained control over 90% of Afghanistan, making the nation in essence a ‘Caliphate.’ The country has been at war almost continuously with Russia, UN forces or the United States for the past 30 years; various estimates of the cost to the U.S. is from more than $3 trillion to double that amount.
An Internet report of June 8th features the death of about 70 people in the Puntland region of Somalia in eastern Africa. The attack was made by al-Shabab warriors who were observed beheading several people including women during the attack. The al-Shabab organization is associated with al-Qaida, the worldwide Islamic terrorist organization. On the day before the start of Muslim holiday Ramadan, 10 masked terrorists attacked a bus south of Cairo, Egypt, killing at least 28 Coptic Christians on their way to a monastery to pray. Three children survived after passengers were ordered to recite the Muslim profession of faith after which they were mowed down by gunfire by the attackers in 3 SUV’s.
This dismal world predicament suggests that over the past few years we have been subjected to an important but very negative concept; civilized people worldwide have been conditioned to believe that death by terrorist is an ongoing fact of life. We have found that ‘hope and change’ was not a strategy and ‘leading from behind’ was not an acceptable action plan. We have also found that problems cannot be solved by talking about them and solutions follow actions, not just words.
The world is now engaged in World War III; if you doubt that, consider that one definition of war is death and destruction. Remember that peace prevails following decisive victory. If you don’t believe that explain why North Korea is developing intercontinental missiles. And if you think diplomacy is the answer, consider our dead-end deals with Cuba, Iran, Russia and Syria.
But our courts will not allow President Trump to pause for 90 or 120 days to develop extreme vetting of refugees from the Middle East. What we have is Extreme Mindless Political Correctness (EMPC).
Dick Baynton