>>Well, I really wanted Eric’s take on what Barnett had to
say about Iran, perhaps China as well.
I saw Barnett's entire presentation on CSpan, but haven't
yet downloaded the interview because (a) I use dial-up and
it will take a long time to download and (b) I'll also have
to download the Real player. Yet I plan to do so.
Here's my general take. The idea of partnering with China
and Iran is intriguing. His notion of pushing the Islamist
conflict farther south into Africa and neutralizing it there
is also interesting. It would take supreme diplomacy on our
part to create this partnership, especially since so many
groups would oppose us in our grand strategy--the Russians
for starters and possibly the EU later on.
It's also heartening to see the Global War on Terror does
have a demographic ceiling or deadline -- that the Middle
Eastern countries currently have a "youth spike" which means
that in twenty years, their Johnny Jihad swill have calmed
down a bit as they enter middle age.
Yet in all of his optimistic presentation, I saw no mention
of the depletion of world oil reserves. (I welcome future
oil shortages as a way of stopping globalism and returning
us to nations and smaller-scale societies. Barnett on the
other hand is an enthusiast globalist.) So unless I missed
his mention of the depletion of oil reserves, I think
Barnett is overlooking a state of affairs that could undo
all the plans for moving nations into the functioning core.
------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
