The election this year has taken a decidedly internal spin as Iraq seems to have stabilized, at least a bit.
It appears some of our troops will come home sooner rather than later. Plus, the economy and the collapse of so many corporate giants makes it easier to concentrate just on issues at home. But we do ourselves a disservice to ignore the rest of the world.
Here are some examples:
There are news reports of growing tension between Russia and Ukraine.
At the same time, Sarah Palin is all but inviting former Soviet states to join NATO, and accepting the possibility of war, which NATO treaty obligations would bring about. The NATO Secretary-General has even visited Georgia, and all but invited the former Soviet Union republic to join NATO, with Russia complaining vehemently about the visit and the invite.
In other world news, OPEC is in crisis after Saudi Arabia apparently quit the organization last week. In the course of walking out, the Saudi Arabian envoy expressed a determination to meet the world's oil demand, rather than engage in tightening the supply, as OPEC was suggesting. OPEC's efforts prompted the walkout.
At the same time, Brazil has located what appears to be a vast oil field. According to Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company in charge of the field, it could contain more than 33 billion barrels of oil. This would greatly increase Brazil's oil reserves, and turn it into one of the world's largest oil producers.
And in still other news, Hugo Chavez has expelled the US Ambassador to Venezuela and recalled his from Washington.
Chavez claims the US was supporting a mounting coup to eject him from office. Bolivia also ejected its US Ambassador, but did not recall its ambassador from DC. Nevertheless, the US promptly ejected him in retaliation anyway. Bolivia is itself a major supplier of natural gas to Brazil, and the majority of natural gas fields are under the control of opposition forces. This leaves Bolivia's supply of natural gas vulnerable to being cut off. Venezuela also announced intentions to cut its oil supplies. Venezuela and Bolivia are the two most leftist governments in South America, as The Guardian reports in the above-linked story. Note that Saudi Arabia, in walking out of OPEC, also had some choice words about Chavez.
We cannot ignore world happenings. These items are not small news, and yet I could not find reference to them from any of the major news outlets (I would not count MSN as a major news outlet, only because they primarily reprint). Why did I have to go to Britain (so to speak) to find out the details of our deteriorating situation with Venezuela? This isn't some obscure country like Togo, where we'd have a hard time determining what relationship, if any, we have. Venezuela is a fairly major OPEC country, and whether we enjoy the fact or not, oil is a major consideration for us all.
And guess what? I do not blame the major news outlets. Or, more accurately, the majority of the fault lies elsewhere. Certainly, the media is to be blamed for making news a department within the entertainment section, thus making it subject to ratings. But that points us to the major problem: us.
As a country, we are hiding our heads from the very real fact that world happenings have a very real effect upon our very lives. I was as alarmed as anyone by Sarah Palin's matter-of-fact admission that entering Georgia or Ukraine into NATO could lead us to war. But my alarm didn't come from disagreement. Once I got past the shock of her response, I realized that Russia is virtually everything opponents of the war in Iraq say Iraq is not:
- In possession of weapons of mass destruction. Perhaps Nuclear being the most important
- Already in possession of technology to strike the US
- Able to do serious harm to the US
- Seeking to expand its authority and with the capability to do so
We need to make sure our next President will not forget that a larger world is out there.