America and the Global Game of Risk

I don't know if people still play the old board game of Risk,, in which the goal was World conquest, but all over the World, that game is heating up and it needs to cool down.

Old alliances are breaking down. The EU is teetering and Brexit is looking more and more sure (the House of Commons has approved it and the House of Lords seems likely to follow).NATO is splintering, with Turkey growing very close to Russia and Trump vowing to review our role in that increasingly irrelevant organization.

The UN has grown so irrelevant that the US is talking about defunding it, or at least cutting the amount we contribute.

The Mid East is torn to bits. It seems that most of the Countries hate each other and share only one thing, their hatred of Israel. Israel must be feeling a tad better with Trump in office. They are undoubtedly glad to see Obama gone, but they must be getting a wee bit nervous over the increasing presence of Russia in the area, especially the great friendship between Russia, Iran, and Turkey. If Assad survives in Syria, he will join those three and I imagine Israel will begin to sweat a little.

Especially with Trump seemingly wanting to be buddies with Russia. I certainly agree that it is better to be cordial with Russia than at each other's throats, but we need to be very cautious. Putin is playing a different game than we are, and the more I read about it, the less I believe that we should trust the man. Reach agreements? Yes. Trust? No.

And what of Asia? That may be worse. China is growing very aggressive, now claiming islands traditionally thought of as Japan's and is claiming waters thought of as International. By all accounts, tales of their fantastic economy have been greatly exaggerated. South Korea is reeling from political corruption. Thailand and Myanmar are unstable. India and Pakistan are still at each other and still remain sewers barely fit for human habitation.  Japan is very jittery, in part because the insane fat kid in North Korea is still building nukes and trying to figure out how to build rockets that work (odd, it seems harder to build working missiles than it is to build nukes; peculiar).

Africa is a disaster. South Africa is relatively wealthy and stable, relatively, for now. The rest of the Continent is torn by tribal and religious wars, and is an ecological disaster, in part because of war, in part because of bad farming practices, and in part because of the whims of the Natural World. The last I heard, and this changes daily, Zimbabwe was almost inaccessible to outsiders and the Congo had 14 different armies fighting for power. The Northern Countries are worse.

South and Central America are slightly better than Africa, but only slightly. Disease, poverty and corrupt leaders, combined with ecological havoc caused by a combination of clear cutting rainforests, poor farming and worse mining procedures and Natural climate changes, have left a vastly over populated and impoverished people.

The big players, America, China, and Russia are playing Risk with the World. They are positioning troops, building industries and spending money in efforts to carve out their spheres of influence. It is fascinating to watch this game of imperialism play itself out, but it is a terrible idea. Imperialism was rampant in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries and it all played itself out in the early 20th Century when WW1 shocked the World. This led to WW2 which should have made it clear that imperialism is a really, really bad idea, but it seems that humans just don't learn. We are living in fascinating and very dangerous times.