Contrary To Obama/Kerry , Violence Is Up 30% Worldwide … First Hike In Decades

Breaking A Decades-Long Trend, The World Gets More Violent

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

” If you were watching the news last year, it was hard to escape the impression the world was falling apart. Now the data is in. And yes, it turns out the world’s most violent conflicts got a lot bloodier in 2014 — almost 30 percent bloodier, in fact.

  According to an analysis of data from the world’s 20 most lethal wars last year, at least 163,000 people died in conflict. That compares to just under 127,000 in the 20 worst wars the previous year, a rise of 28.7 percent.”

 

 

 

 

  That’s a pretty disturbing spike by anyone’s terms. And if you look at the first few months of 2015, the violence doesn’t seem to be waning.

  What’s even more worrying is that this seems to be part of an ongoing trend that now goes back eight years. According to the Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), global violence — as defined by a range of measures from conflict deaths, to displaced persons, to homicide rates — has been rising since 2007.”

 

 

 

 

” This news is in many ways surprising because up to 2007, the data suggested the world was becoming a much safer place.

  According to the IEP, global violence had been broadly subsiding since the end of World War Two. Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker traces it back even further. Since the dawn of prehistory, Pinker’s research suggests, mankind has been becoming less violent.

  So what is going wrong now? And how bad could it all get? ”

 

   What could have changed ?  Couldn’t be a lack of competent leadership now could it ? Nah … they’ve assured us we’ve never been safer . Read more at Reuters …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Saturday Steyn

A Show Of Contempt, At Home And Abroad

 

 

 

 

 

” Happy Easter, Happy Passover. On this Good Friday, we mark the tenth anniversary of Mel’s movie, and over the weekend we’ll have something with a lighter touch.

  Caroline Glick, my old colleague from The Jerusalem Post, has a column using a very Steynian word, “The Disappearance of America’s Will“:

  The most terrifying aspect of the collapse of US power worldwide is the US’s indifferent response to it.

  In Europe, in Asia, in the Middle East and beyond, America’s most dangerous foes are engaging in aggression and brinkmanship unseen in decades.

  That first sentence is very true. Thirteen years ago, the left hopped aboard the war-on-terror bandwagon for reasons of electoral self-preservation, and hopped off as soon as they could. But, after a decade of ineffectual thankless three-cups-of-tea transnational ersatz “nation-building” in Mesopotamia and the Hindu Kush, the right has largely checked out of global geopolitics, too. Whether the GOP nominates a compassionate amnesty guy like Jeb Bush or goes full Rand Paul, the world and its woes will not be much of a factor. Miss Glick again:

  The generation coming of age today is similarly uninterested in US global leadership.

  During the Cold War and in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the predominant view among American university students studying international affairs was that US world leadership is essential to ensure global stability and US national interests and values.

  Today this is no longer the case . It is because of this that the world is more likely than it has been since 1939 to experience a world war of catastrophic proportions.

  There is a direct correlation between the US elite’s preoccupation with social issues running the narrow and solipsistic gamut from gay marriage to transgender bathrooms to a phony war against women, and America’s inability to recognize the growing threats to the global order or understand why Americans should care about the world at all.

  If Putin closes down a transgender nightclub a week before the Special Olympics, he can get America’s attention. When he annexes neighboring states, not so much. Under Nato, the US has collective-security treaty obligations to the Baltic States, but if I were Estonian I wouldn’t bet on them. Not unless the Russians make the mistake of bombing a gay wedding in Tallinn.”

As always , read the whole thing from Mr Steyn who offers these words of wisdom …

” Around the planet, Russia’s neo-tsar, the Chinese Politburo, apocalyptic ayatollahs, Afghan goatherds and Benghazi jihad punks laugh at the very idea of American power, but on the home front, if your estranged wife failed to repay her college loan or you drink loose-leaf tea, you’ll get your door kicked down and be cowering in terror.”

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