The Seeds of War

As the network news outlets focus on the November elections, there are a few small stories they have missed this week. These stories may not amount to much in their own right, but taken together they remind me of a snowball traveling downhill, picking up speed and mass as it goes. When that snowball hits the bottom, we will see a clash of civilizations that has the potential to spark World War III. Some of the events that have been under-reported this week:

-President Ahmadinejad of Iran is backing his candidate for upcoming elections to the Assembly of Experts in Iran against the current Ayatollah Khamenei. The Assembly of Experts oversees the Iranian regime as well as it's military. The Candidate, Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, known as the crocodile for his strong anti-US line, is a shoe-in considering the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are prepared to stuff ballots and make sure the "election" goes the President's way. What does this mean for the World? An international reporter said it best:

"As the head of the Assembly of Experts, Mesbah-Yazdi would legitimize Ahmadinejad's vision of the second coming of the Shi'ite prophet Ali. The president has portrayed the current Iranian nuclear showdown with the West as the precursor to what could be Armageddon and the dawn of a new Islamic world."

-I'm sure everyone saw the press coverage of Pakistani President Musharraf's visit to the White House where he pitched his new book, but the most interesting part about his visit is what was going on back in Pakistan without his approval. The Pakistani Intelligence agency took it upon themselves to release over 150 Al-Qaeda aligned prisoners while the President was gone. Also, hard-liners in the military have abandoned control over Waziristan, which has been flooded with Taliban members ever since the withdrawal. The message, the Pakistani President does not seem to be able to control his own military or Intelligence agency. The scary part, who is in control of Pakistan's nuclear weapons?

-North Korea, the non-Middle Eastern country in the "Axis of Evil" is warning the World that it is going to test a nuclear weapon. The good news is that we could destroy North Korea's capability to wage war in about a month. The bad news is that nobody knows how China would react. North Korea would be easy, China would not...

So what do these regimes all have in common: Iran, China, North Korea, the Taliban? They are all oppressive and do not believe in freedom for their people. They rule through intimidation, torture, and misinformation. Most importantly, they hate America and they hate YOU...