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Friday, February 18, 2005

Deepak Chopra: "Europe won't have any wars"

Deepak Chopra, on the Dennis Miller Show, just blamed all war on nationalism. This view is prevalent in Europe, where the last two centuries were consumed by nationalistic wars.

Let me go out on a giant limb with steel support beams and suspension wires here, Europe will have wars, if they are not involved in a war right now. Mr. Chopra does have a point in that Germany and France are unlikely to fight a war in the near future. If one looks at history through the blinders of WWI and WWII, this could constitute the end of all war.

Mr. Chopra has conveniently forgotten wars of religion, ethnicity, trade disputes, those caused by a sudden change in leadership, and more. This list could stretch for pages and pages, of small print.

A good argument can be made that Europe is involved in a war right now, against militant Islam. The radical Muslims (Osama, Takfir, Wahhabi) desire a global Islamic caliphate, regardless of national boundaries. This caliphate is to be accomplished through political divide-and-conquer, immigration, terrorism, propaganda, political activism, and targeted assassination of those who dare to speak out (Theo VanGogh being a good recent example). Critics of Islam from Robert Spencer to Coptic Christians in New Jersey are under the constant threat of death. If wars require armies wearing uniforms flying the colors of their nation-state, then the global jihad does not qualify as a war. On the other hand, if this is the case, it's time for the mainstream media to quit referring to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as wars, examples Mr. Chopra uses himself. French Muslims are fighting and dying in Iraq, but not under the French flag. These semantic distinctions might make the Europeans feel better. Once again, Europe has achieved "Peace in Our Time".

Wars are dependent on group identity, otherwise violence is just a fight between two people. One might identify with a nation-state, tribe, gang, religion, political party, ethnicity, economic interest, and many other human phenomena. Wars need not be large-scale set battles between armored divisions funded by nations. Sometimes we refer to social policy as warfare: war on drugs, war on poverty, war on illiteracy, and so on. Senator Barbara Boxer recently termed the dispute between Democrats and Republicans as war. Howard Dean is the cheerleader for such militant demagoguery when he said he hates Republicans and everything they stand for.

Bomb-throwing rhetoric brings to mind one other sort of war which I haven't mentioned: civil war, or "The" Civil War in the United States. Mr. Chopra, perhaps you can fit the Civil War of the United States into your nationalism-is-the-root-of-all-war meme, but it will require a great deal of intellectual elasticity, not to mention heroic disingenuity.

As the EU tries to force the Israelis into national suicide, per EU Middle East policy, and to counterbalance the power of the United States, for the first time since the Roman Empire Europe may find itself in a war fighting on the same side. Perhaps this is what Chopra means. Europe, represented by the EU, is unlikely to fight a civil war in the next 20 years. Mr. touchy-feely Chopra might do wonderful things for troubled minds, but he should stay far away from geopolitics and military history.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chip your full of bullshit

Chip said...

Actually I'm full of salad and a hamburger.

That's a brilliant retort. Not one bit of argument or analysis. Thanks for responding. I've always wanted my own stupid pet troll.

Chip said...

By the way "Anonymous" the contraction for you are is "you're". You're welcome.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Chopra has conveniently forgotten wars of religion, ethnicity, trade disputes, those caused by a sudden change in leadership, and more.All of which, in the past four decades, have been started by the United States.

The reason Europe will be at war is the U.S. will drage her into it. Returning the favor, perhaps, for the world wars.

The radical Muslims (Osama, Takfir, Wahhabi) desire a global Islamic caliphate, regardless of national boundaries.Bullshit. They require the U.S. to leave Islamic lands. The only entity on the planet with such imperial goals is the United States.

targeted assassination of those who dare to speak out (Theo VanGogh being a good recent example).How do you get out of bed in the morning? Do you jump at every sound in the night. A life led in fear is not worth living.

Saying van Gogh was killed as part of some vast Mooooooooooslim conspiracy is like saying gang violence is part of an African conspiracy to make cities unlivable for whites. It was a one-off perpetrated by misguided delinquets.

Critics of Islam from Robert Spencer to Coptic Christians in New Jersey are under the constant threat of death.You've got a bit of a martyr complex. I've noticed that among LGFers. Why is that?

These semantic distinctions might make the Europeans feel better. Once again, Europe has achieved "Peace in Our Time".As the EU tries to force the Israelis into national suicide, per EU Middle East policy, and to counterbalance the power of the United States,You know, not everything is about Israel. The EU is trying to balance the aggressive pro-Israel stance of the U.S.; Palestinians need whatever help they can get to try to stem the daily Israeli murders of their people.

Mr. touchy-feely Chopra might do wonderful things for troubled minds, but he should stay far away from geopolitics and military history.Would that you could take your own advice.

Chip said...

Anonymous,

You lost me at "All of which, in the past four decades, have been started by the United States."

Care to back up any of your reflexively anti-American bullshit with actual facts?

Anonymous said...

Hey Chip!

Your little friends slip is showing. :)

quark2

Anonymous said...

Saying van Gogh was killed as part of some vast Mooooooooooslim conspiracy is like saying gang violence is part of an African conspiracy to make cities unlivable for whites. It was a one-off perpetrated by misguided delinquets.

Not so fast, skippy.

>>research by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment. This defense institute tries to dispel the notion that Mohammed Bouyeri might have been a lone gunman. Not exactly the scoop of the century, but interesting nevertheless. Read the full thing here (no worries, it's in English).

Follow the link. It's in English, pdf format.

Anonymous said...

um, that last was moi

grayp

Anonymous said...

zeez of flip, here's the freakin' link

http://www.zachtei.nl/

grayp

Anonymous said...

when mankind`s level of consciouness reach a certain mark regarding the collective unconsciousnss a new world order will emerge