World War III alert

My step son is worried about the middle East, that there will be a third world war there.

I tell him not to worry: No one is going to nuke Manila, and if China takes us over, as they are slowly doing, no problem: The Chinoys and first families run the place anyway.

Of course, if 2 or 3 million OFW leave Saudi/the middle east, and hit here looking for work, things could get messy.

But as my husband, who survived WWII promised me: Don't worry. You will always have enough rice to eat.( the family business is organic rice growing. We even own two water buffalo in case we can't get fuel for our hand plows).

As for the USA: they will just frack and ignore the problem.

The most underreported story of the day is that the US is now independent of middle east energy .

StrategyPage has a long summary about Syria as a Sunni/Shia war proxy, with Turkey's meddling to keep the Kurds from getting their own independent country.

Included is this dirty little secret: Russians and Assad play dirty, which is an advantage in a dirty war: like SriLankha found out, you need to ignore the NGO's crying "human rights violations" to actually win a war against the bad guys.

In the meanwhile, (via Instapundit)  Germany's influencial newspaper Das Spiegel laments the loss of American "leadership".

Yeah. As the old proverb goes: Watch what you wish for, you may actually get it.

I have been reading anti American tirades on German and other European news sites since Reagan became president.

want a list?

This Germany Watch article from 2011 has examples.

and don't take their word for it: even the DailyBeast noticed how the German press pushed hatred of the US as a priority, often while ignoring the "sins" by their real enemies.

Obama is unlikely to go to war: The Democrats are peaceniks (to the extent Bernie might win their nomination) and the Republicans (who never saw a war they didn't like)? Well, Trump is already hated by Europe, and the Muslims there hate his guts for insisting they don't get a free Green card without checking they aren't sleeper cells.

But as the WAPO notes: Trump is actually closer to Sanders than to the other candidates.

the link? Both are populists, and a lot of those folks who cling to guns and religion are tired of being pushed around not only by the American elites but by their European "allies".

as for me: Don't ask me. I figure if Mohammed had just divorced his child wife, who was behind those who opposed his son in law running Islam, none of this would have happened. Or maybe not: Iran's push to take over the area has it's historical roots in Darius the Great's empire.