Looking For That Kinder, Gentler world

EVEN AS WE SPEAK, we are well armed, practicing hard, and ready to go. All of us, the world over. The Russians are conducting extensive military "exercises", which means practicing making war, very near the Ukraine, which is hardly surprising, since Vladimir Putin the Great obviously intends to reqoncuer that sovereign nation in honor of people like ivan the Terrible, Ivan the Great, Catherine the Great, Joseph Stalin, and all the other gentle souls who have ruled the motherland with an iron hand for centuries. Meanwhile, the United Staes and her flunkies, aka "N.A.T.O" are doing the same thing, sharpening their killing skills, nearby, on the other side of Ukraine. In other words, the kindling, the fire, and the gasoline are all laid out, in close proximity to each other, ready to detonate. And who knows what the Chinese are doing; over the past few years they have made a point of conducting a nearly constant display of naval exercises in the South China Sea, just to remind us all that they can, and that they are in charge in that region, and fully intend to remain so. The south Koreans and the Americans have been having similar practice sessions off the coast of Korea, which the North Koreans have dutifully acknowledged by firing nine missiles into the pacific Ocean, within shouting distance of the American navy. Exciting times. Many arrogant, aggressive, imperialistic, well armed countries, paranoid as always. and just think, a mere fifty years ago, back in the halcyon sixties, many of us had the stupid audacity to suppose that by the time the twenty first century was well underway, we'd be beyond all this, and well ensconced in a kinder gentler world. So much for pleasant dreams.