The Central Issue of Our Time?

What did you expect life in the 21st century would be like?

The right to un-provoked, unnecessary, unilateral invasions and unplanned occupations (UULUIUO's) invoked by Bush in Iraq is taking root. As the Leader of the 'Free World', the force of America's precedence and example has always promised to be irresistible and potentially overwhelming.

In December, the world watched Meles Zenawi's Ethiopia invade Somalia on a preventive war pretext, construing the decentralized and tribal Union of Islamic Courts as terrorists and claiming endorsement on international organizations as endorsing their action as well as expecting them to assume the task of occupation and rebuilding.

Now, in January we have NATO ally, Turkey, entertaining the same UULUIUO-type of activity. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Friday reaffirmed Turkey's right to send troops into Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels there and chided U.S. officials for questioning it. Erdogan told a news conference after a meeting of his ruling AK Party,

We don't want to waste time with abstract statements, we want concrete results . . .

The Turkish Republic will do whatever is necessary to combat the terrorists when the time comes, but it will not announce its plans in advance. . . . We have a 350 km border with Iraq. We have historic relations ... the United States is 10,000 km away from Iraq, and yet is it not intervening in Iraq's internal affairs?

Thus, as the 21st century is just getting on its feet, George Bush thinks he has established what its "Central Issue" will be and what measures will be selected to deal with it.

The central task of this century, according to Bush's vision, are to seek out and identify 'extremists' and bomb and/or invade them.

Hold on to your hats, my fellow citizens of the 21st Century. And prepare for the draft: we'll need one for our future UULUIUO's: The world is full of more I-Rocks out there, waiting to be cracked open.