Disturbing lack of focus

The media and our self serving natures are playing a very scary game of smoke and mirrors. We are all feeding our worst doom and gloom scenarios and focusing almost solely on our own perceived national and personal financial situation and almost ignoring what could very well turn into the next international conflict in Gaza. If that happens, it would affect not only our precious finances, but the lifeblood of our nation and our children.

The vast majority of us, especially now that gas prices have dropped, are really not any worse off than we were this time last year. Our 401k statements may look a lot uglier, but since most of us are not retiring this year, it is all perception. 93% of us still have our jobs, we still have our homes, we still have our lives. But if this situation in the Gaza escalates, we may not have that anymore. At the present time, both sides are ignoring the rest of the world in their calls for peace and reasonable, constructive dialogue. Both the Israelis and Palestinians (through their support of Hamas) are doing nothing but deepening the rift between them. They are each using the actions of the other to justify their continued hostility.

Should this conflict deepen and require or inspire the military involvement of outside parties, we will see open multinational warfare on our hands. The UN, and especially the US, is already spread too thin with the conflicts they are already involved in, besides those that are threatening in Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan/India, and Iran. The Islamic nations and their extremists are already stirred up, feeling defensive, and looking for a justifiable excuse to vent their anger and frustration.

In this country, open multinational conflict (a "world war") would result in huge deficit spending to beef up the military, a draft in order to provide the manpower necessary to fulfill our increasing obligations, the need for rationing in order to supply the war effort, and the death and injury of our sons and daughters . Yes, it may not be happening here, but what is going on in the Gaza has very real and major consequences for us and we should all be more invested in what is going on in that area.

Americans, because of our size and our geographic location, have always felt ourselves to be removed from what is going on elsewhere in the world. Unless it directly affects us in a blatant and obvious way, we tell ourselves that it is not our concern. We are at war, but how many of us are really up on what is going on in Iraq or Afghanistan? Does the news even touch on it daily anymore? Do we demand that they do? No... after the number of years we have been at war there, it has become old news, as is any fighting in the Middle East. Our collective response is, "Are they at it again?" We might as well shake our heads and say, "Those crazy kids" for all of our lack of concern. But these are real people who are dying over a long standing cause that arouses a great deal of passion. It will not be resolved easily or without outsiders coming in and giving these two groups a swift karmic kick upside the head to get them to stop for a moment and see reason. The Israelis and Palestinians are so stuck in this pattern of loathing and retribution that they can't see straight. Getting them to look with outside eyes and without the blinders of hatred and bias is the key here, but that can't be done if we all are wearing our own blinders of self interest and self pity.

There is nowhere in the world where we can hide from hostility and conflict- not in our own cocoons or in the false illusions we create for ourselves. The ugliness of the outside world will enter in whether we choose to ignore it or not. Our only hope is to face it head on and proactively do something about it. People here buried their heads in the sand when the world was dealing with the danger posed by Germany and Japan for years and it took the loss of thousands of lives in Pearl Harbor to pull our heads and take action. We can't afford in this age of weapons of mass destruction and atomic weapons available to the highest bidder to let that happen again. It won't be a mere thousands of lives this time around.

We must begin a strong push for dialogue now, with the public resolve of the American people behind it. We truly can't afford not to.