Canada Free Press: One of the factors contributing to the utter failure of diplomacy in 1914 was the decay of previously functioning institutions in foreign and military affairs. The diplomatic regime that governed Europe from 1870 to 1914 had begun to unravel in the years leading up to World War One. These institutions had avoided a clash between great powers for half a century. There had been some near misses but, in the end, level heads prevailed, and tragedy was averted. This reliance on successful diplomacy bred a degree of complacency, even hubris, among Europe’s governing elites. Countries grew dangerously unafraid of war.
Institutions like NATO, the EU, and dollar-denominated world financial system have all been decaying since the end of the cold war
Consider the similarities to today. Institutions like NATO, the EU, and dollar-denominated world financial system have all been decaying since the end of the cold war. European countries (and Canada) have refused to meet their commitments to spend 2% of GDP on defense preferring to let the Americans do the heavy lifting. As a result, NATO has been hollowed out. Ammunition stockpiles are so thin that the transfer of munitions to Ukraine drained them completely. The industrial base needed to replace these munitions no longer exists and so restocking will be a long, uneven process. NATO has become essentially an American protectorate. This allows NATO members to spend lavishly on social programs while US taxpayers pay the defense bill. This cannot last because the ability of the United States to print money endlessly is coming to an end.
Meanwhile the EU, which was born as a common market to curb Europe’s propensity to murder each other in endless wars, has evolved into a bloated, overbearing monster that seeks to interfere in every aspect of national life. This has forced the UK out of the EU and resulted in small insurgencies in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. Other sovereign nations such as Poland and Hungary are increasingly resistant to dictates from Brussels. The Euro is in trouble because a monetary union without a fiscal union regime cannot work, as Margaret Thatcher predicted. Spendthrift countries splurge while responsible economies (read Germany) sop up the excess. As retirement age in Greece is being lowered it is being raised in Germany to pay for it. How long the Germans will put up with this is unclear but Like NATO’s imbalance, it is unsustainable. The European Central Bank has serious problems with its balance sheet and a sovereign debt crisis may not be far off. MORE
I think I need to send Joe Biden an Archduke Franz Ferdinand costume for Memorial Day….
“We didn’t start the fire, but the world’s been burning since the world’s been turning…..”
willysgoatgruff, send that to Klaus Schwab. Biden is rocking the Woodrow Wilson look.
World War 1 was not the war to end all wars, it only allowed its continuance 20 years later in World War 2 because the allies didn’t finish the job of unconditionally winning WW1 in 1918. Woodrow Wilson and the gutless League of Nations were fools to believe otherwise.
I believe a partial Enlightenment of Homo Sapiens Sapiens did occur in the last 500 years.
I also believe it is now fading away.
I also suspect that across God’s great Milky Way Galaxy, civilizations based on reason are the hardest thing to preserve once they’re established.
Think 1860.
Rich Democrats started that one, too.
“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”
The Cold War stayed cold because the leaderships across the World recalled the horrors of WWII – some 50 million dead (military and civilian).
WWII was caused by the arrogance and imbecilities of Wilsonian Socialism (called “Progressivism” at the time).
Our problems now are not related to diplomacy, per se, but to the rejection of God and the allowing of Satanism into our hearts and polities.
The Old Testament is replete with the degeneration of every third or so generation which accepted idols and foreign cultural influences – falling away from the peace and security of God’s grace. We are following in their footsteps – it’s not simply a Jewish story – more of a human one. You read it and ask yourself “WTF were those Jews thinking?” But hindsight is vastly clearer than being in the mash. Rome, Byzantium, England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Russia, China, Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, Medea, Persia, Japan, the ancient Celts – all making the same mistakes – over and over again.
Once we become fat, dumb, and happy we forget from whence our blessings flow.
We embrace Satan, cast a golden calf, and fall into dissolution and perversion.
mortem tyrannis
izlamo delenda est …
At least in 1914 America was intact (as it was in 1939). Forget today – we do have a country anymore worth remaining intact. Start planning the new boundaries.
I hear there’s a nice ex-pat community in western Mexico.
Here is a powerful thread on how leftists take power by assuming victimhood. Dating back to the Greeks, but largely focused on Marxism.
https://twitter.com/ModernHeretic9/status/1640771440126439425