National Anxiety Center - Warning Signs!

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January 4, 2006 ~ Vol. 8, No. 1

Global Predictions for 2006

Everyone thinks they can predict the future. No one really can except in the most general way, but that will not preclude me from making mine!

History and some knowledge of the world give us a cloudy glimpse of the future. Here are some predictions with which to conjure.

Both Israel and the United States will be compelled to launch a preemptive strike against the network of Iranian nuclear weapons and missile manufacturing facilities either in 2006 or 2007.

The Palestinians will fail to elect any kind of widely accepted new government and civil war will break out among Hamas, El Fattah, and whatever other terrorist gang has weapons. That’s assuming, of course, they even manage to hold elections

Lebanon will continue its struggle to break free of Syria’s grip and will be aided in this effort by the U.N., the U.S. and the European Union. This may lead to the destabilization of the Assad regime.

Turkey will transition from the only successful secular state in the Middle East to one in the control of Islamic fundamentalists. Where previously, its military corps insured against this occurring, it may have too many Islamists in its ranks to prevent it. Admission to the EU will be put on permanent hold and Turkey’s economy will plummet. Direct foreign investment will disappear.

Despite naysayers, Iraq will continue to make progress toward establishing a functioning government and making adjustments to its constitution to avoid splitting apart.

Depending on the level of dissatisfaction among Venezuelans, the assassination or overthrow of President Hugo Chavez may occur. South American nations will continue to elect socialists, i.e., communists, to rule. Expect widespread social discord and unrest. The only winners will be the drug cartels.

The Bush administration will engineer some sort of "guest worker" program that will enable Mexicans to enter the United States legally and push it through Congress. The alternative would be the potential economic collapse of Mexico.

China, while bellicose and building its military, will continue to seek accommodation with the U.S. and world trade partners. Internal problems with growing peasant and worker rebellions will continue to occupy the attention of its political cadres. Japan will begin to rearm in a big way.

Saddam Hussein will be found guilty of crimes against his nation and executed.

Worldwide, al Qaeda will continue to be steadily degraded in its ability to launch major terrorist attacks. Some kind of catastrophic attack, however, should be anticipated against the U.S.

The Republican Party will retain control of Congress, but just barely.

2006 will see another, totally predictable succession of powerful hurricanes. There is no connection between the number or intensity of hurricanes and the so-called "global warming" theory.

A major earthquake causing extensive damage and loss of life is overdue in California.

Politically Correct Suicide

We live in a society in which virtually anything can be known about your buying preferences, your credit rating, where you live, where you went to school, your employment history, et cetera. As often as not, you provide this information whenever you apply for a credit card, open a bank account, secure a loan, or fill out a job application. In short, you give up some of your private information in exchange for something you deem beneficial.

Why, then, do some—maybe a lot—of Americans get upset when their government undertakes the intelligence gathering and surveillance needed to insure the nation remains safe from its enemies?

Why did The New York Times break the story of this essential counter-intelligence activity and why did the rest of the nation’s mainstream news media deliberately stir fears that the government is tapping their phone? Someone should be going to jail!

The National Security Agency was monitoring telephone and other electronic traffic from known or suspected Islamic terrorists outside the nation who might have been communicating with those inside.

Given the uproar over the NSA’s legitimate, authorized activities, one would think that Americans have forgotten that Identify theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the nation, so you can be sure that criminals have learned how to secure "private" information about you; many of them "phish" for it via the Internet quite successfully.

Anyone with the tiniest amount of intelligence flitting back and forth making synaptic connections in your brain, has got to know that the government simply does not have enough people in either its espionage or law enforcement agencies to spy on everybody.

There is simply no reason to spy on everybody!

Surveillance exists to protect Americans. It is not merely useful to know what our so-called allies, trading partners, and our well-known enemies are planning to do, it is essential to our national survival.

Being at war requires that we accept some limitations on our lives and our rights for the greater, common good. When it was first enacted, I had some reservations about The U.S. Patriot Act and, frankly, I was wrong. Those in Congress who fought against its reenactment were wrong, but at least our legislators have not left has shorn of the protection it affords, extending it for a single month at the end of last year.

Today the finest military force our nation has ever put into the field of battle is engaged, not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also in nations all over the world that have invited us to train their armies in the defense of freedom. We must match their courage with our own.

The hectoring of every effort the government takes to protect us, demanding that foreign terrorists be given the same Constitutional rights as the rest of us, defaming our armed forces, and depicting those in our justice and national security agencies as enemies to be feared is the road to perdition.

We must avoid a politically correct suicide.

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