CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, January 13, 2014

1914 to 2014: 100 years of drifting into conflicts

Ever get a creepy feeling something very bad is about to happen? In the early summer of 1914, did the British people many of us saw characterized in the initial season of "Downton Abbey" have any idea that western Europe was about to destroy itself? What did people feel like in mid-October 1929? Just before the stock market crashed. What were Americans thinking about on December 6, 1941: Did they have any idea that the Japanese would attack the very next dawn? Few recall how they felt on September 10, 2001. But we all remember how we felt the next day when Islamic terrorists hijacked four airliners and destroyed our illusion of being at peace. Possibly, forever.

Looking around the world, we see a nuclear-armed North Korean being led by a looney-toon president who executes his own uncle and thinks a washed-out American basketball player hung the Moon. In Iran, we see a nation led by Islamic zealots who want nuclear weapons so they can rule the Middle East and blast Israel off the face of the earth. In Red China, we see a leadership determined to create a navy able to dominate the waters surrounding Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Straits of Malacca and the Indian Ocean, as well. In Russia, the robust leadership of Vladimir Putin is restoring the former Soviet Union to the front rank of nuclear-armed nations.

In America, our secretary of state proclaims the Monroe Doctrine is no longer in effect. Military personnel and promotion policies are being changed to favor officers who are "politically correct," and are nothing like the war-winning warriors of World War II: Generals George Patton, "Chesty" Puller, and Admiral Earnest King.

Our stock market is reaching towering heights reminiscent of October, 1929. Too much money is chasing too few investments of merit, making rich investors richer and our senior savers poorer. Twenty-nine percent of Americans are not working, either because they cannot find jobs or because they can make more money on welfare.

Currently, millions do not know if they have health insurance or not. When the employer mandate kicks back in next year, many employers plan to convert to a part-time workforce and, thereby, avoid the escalating costs of ObamaCare.

Congress is split between one party that wants more Socialism and one party that wants a return to free-market Capitalism. The White House is in the hands of a president who might legally be president; however, seems to be culturally from someplace other than America. The Supreme Court cannot make an understandable distinction between a fine and a tax. The French-Canadian company that could not figure out how to on-line portal healthcare.gov has been replaced by an Irish-owned company most of whose employees live in India or the Philippines. Result: Healthcare.gov is being outsourced to a foreign, off-shore tax-haven.

The regime media is fixated on Governor Christie’s Bridgegate and is indifferent to finding out who gave the order for readily available rescue forces to "stand down" and leave four Americans, to include an American ambassador, his aide, and two Navy SEALs to die in Benghazi.

It feels as if we are approaching the summer of 1914 and, like a rudderless ship, we are drifting into World War III.

Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, was educated at the University of Oklahoma, the George Washington University, the U.S Naval War College, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University.

©2014. William Hamilton.

You may unsubscribe to "Central View" at any time by sending an e-mail message with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line and addressed to news@central-view.com. You will receive an automated acknowledgement.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com