Paraphrasing Mark Twain, history does not repeat. But it does rhyme. The rhyming we are seeing points to a repeat of World War I & II. Only this time it will probably be nuclear.
Except in hindsight, neither WWI nor WWII had a particular starting point. The hindsight starting point for WWI was the assasination of Archduke Ferdinand of Serbia which had to do with an attempt to unite Bosnia and Herzegovina with Serbia. There were two opposing alliances at the time, the Triple Entente consisting of France, Britain and Russia which was also allied with Serbia. The other main alliance was the Central Powers consisting of Italy, Germany and Austria-Hungary.
The assasination of the Archduke took place on June 28, 1914. In response, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. That caused Russia to mobilize because of their alliance with Serbia. But, remember, Germany was allied with Austria-Hungary so they declared war on Russia and France. Britain, which was allied with France and Russia then declared war on Germany. This all happened within about
6 weeks. Later, due to the perfidy of Woodrow Wilson, the United States, who had no dogs in this European fight, entered the war on the side of Britain and France.
In WWII the alliances were Germany, Italy and Japan versus, ultimately, pretty much the rest of the world. Germany, resentful of the peace treaty imposed upon them at Versailles, elected Hitler who promptly invaded Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and France. He tried to defeat Britain from the air in the Battle of Britain. Meanwhile, Japan had been busy with military expansion in Asia since the early 1930s. They invaded Manchuria, French Indo-China, China, Korea and India. And remember, they were allied with Germany and Italy. By 1937 the United States had terminated its commercial treaty with Japan and tightened its export control act, One result of the U.S. trade war initiatives was cutting off a large source of Japan's access to petroleum. In response Japan bombed Pearl Harbor bringing the U.S.. into a second World War where again, we had no dogs in the fight.
Today the alliances are the North American Treaty Organization, NATO, consisting of most of Western Europe and the United States. On the other side is an alliance of Russia and China with a lot of cooperation from Iran, India and possibly the OPEC countries. Most of the rest of the world are looking to see which direction the wind blows. The Obama administration's CIA covertly backed a coup in Ukraine which deposed the duly elected President of Ukraine who was more aligned with Russia than the West. Later, discussions with the new Ukraine government included admitting Ukraine into NATO.In response Russia massed its troops on the borders of Ukraine. The Biden administration along with Britain, actively torpedoed ongoing peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia leading to the current proxy war which Ukraine is losing. Now people who run the Biden administration have okayed allowing Ukraine to use U.S. manufactured missiles to attack the interior of Russia. Meanwhile, Biden's handlers have doubled down on Trump's trade restrictions on China. Remember, China is Russia's new best friend. The rhymes with history are there. Step by step we are escalating a conflict. And once again, we have no dogs in this fight. Unfortunately, we are getting past the rhyming part. WWIII will not be fought with M-15s, tanks, jet fighters and bazookas. It could very well be fought with nuclear weapons. Libertarians know that other than a few weapons manufacturers and battlefield medical suppliers, we all lose from war. In WWII we could all lose permanently. This is Richard Fields with this week's Report From the Fields. See you again next week, I hope.