I hope you caught a terrific little article in the latest Imprimis, based on a lecture given by a Dr. Victor Hanson of the Hoover Institute on the Future of Western War.

Here are the Cliff Notes:

1) By the rapid dissemination of information and technology, the world is changing shape. Someone in the Hindu Kush tonight can download a supplicated article on how to make an IED.

2) The old wartime codes of honor are gone (especially when fighting Muslim nations.)

3) There is no monolithic west.

4) Our society values the lives of our young men much more than Afghan societies value the lives of theirs.


Now here are my comments:

1) What I think Dr. Hanson is saying in 4) is that the Fundamentalist Muslims have something to die for, while guys in the west still have something to live for - their 4000 sq. ft. houses, their 1.2 kids, and a Starbucks Latte at 10:00 am. In the end, this will make the Muslims better fighters, at least longer fighters.

2) There will always be wars. It's just a question of who will be fighting who in this world. Who has a reason to fight? Muslims will fight. They have a reason to fight. They have a religiously-based, Take-Over-the-World Philosophy, and they were shoved back into their hole at Malta 500 years ago, and now they are starting to feel their wild oats. They've also seen a 10-fold increase in world population since 1900.

The Chinese will want to fight too.

3) The future of war will include WMD’s, assuming of course that God chooses not to pull the plug on this thing. (There are a few of us who still believe in human depravity.)

4) Because information and technology is going through a steady decentralizing process, get ready for decentralized war in the form of more terrorist events, guerilla warfare, and militia-based operations. Of course, this will make it practically impossible for one nation to rule the world and engage every skirmish.

5) Our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will only serve to intensify the religious fervor of fundamentalistic Islam. We hoped that the Gospel of Democratic Secular Materialism would squelch fundamentalistic Islam. It's too late. Our secular materialistic dreams, our worship of STUFF in the west is dying in an economic collapse anyway.

6) The nations and empires of men will always be killing each other off, but the peaceful kingdom of Christ will steadily expand around this sin-soaked globe. Eph. 1:22.