The military has said we cannot beat our new enemy, ISIS, with air power alone. This becomes evident as ISIS marches onto Baghdad, Iraq despite all the bombing, missiles, killer drones we use. Taking this logic a bit further and learning lessons learned in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan we cannot take sides in a civil conflict and ultimately win any real victory. Often people in the country resist our interference and take the opposing side.

There was a cartoon in the editorial section of today newspaper on how George Orwell the author of the book “1984” was wrong about the date. (See cartoon below). He predicted constant surveillance; state sanctioned torture, newspeak, and novel writing machine, gibberish music created by a computer and endless war, all things that are true today, 2014. He just got the year wrong.
The book “1984” like the Book of Revelations in the New Testament uses images of the future to describe some of the oppression of the present. The early Christian were persecuted by the Roman Empire and talked about the revelation of God in images and revelations. The early Christians were persecuted and thought themselves of living in “end times.”

Talking with a friend today about all the violence, climate change, wars, oppression, and illnesses going on the world she thought we were living in “end times.” Perhaps we are, but a truer way of looking at the world today is, I believe, seeing in the present the seeds of the future. “The end is near” might be a good way of describing our present.

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