MILLENIAL NEWS SERVICE

I have observed that various ministries of truth are trumpeting the rampant nationalism sweeping the world where nationalist parties are "sweeping to victory" in third place. Perhaps they're worried and see the chilling effects the rise of nationalist movements in various places will have in the immediate and near future. They're right to be concerned, even now, because everybody knows what happens when two peoples decide they cannot stand to abide living with each other.

One of the more recent manifestations of this was in Yugoslavia. The thing to remember about watching that latest European version of ethnic cleansing was that nobody lifted a finger to do anything about it until the United States, acting almost unilaterally, put an end to it. In the past there were major powers that looked after the interests of the nationals living abroad and would step in to prevent massacres but the important thing to keep in mind now is that there are now no major powers left. The Russians pretend to be and because they control the ocean of oil and gas that is essential to life in Europe, the world lets them get away with it. They've been messing about in Georgia and other places that nobody cares about, but then, there are no other places on earth with large populations of Russian nationals. The US was a major power but without the will there is no power. As the military declines under the remaining 3 and a half years of the current regime, the US will find it hard to scrape up the power to project anything anywhere.

Another aspect of major powers was that they forged meaningful military and diplomatic alliances. All the Syrian farce did recently was highlight that the US does not have one single friend or ally left in the world. You'd think people would take note of that. Admittedly, back when major powers forged those alliances they did so with each other. The will to forge an alliance with lesser powers pretty much ended with the Triple Entente. We've been waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan for a decade with NATO members providing a platoon every now and again and maybe a helicopter.

I don't know if the ministers of truth fear the slow rise of nationalism again because they fear it could lead to war between nations or they are afraid that it will lead to ethnic cleansing within existing national borders. Either way, it's going to be very hard on the new minority populations in Europe. We will see how 'soft power' copes with one or two members of the EU deciding that a little ethnic cleansing is the right thing to do. But, here is where we truly discover how little power is left. What the nations and peoples and rulers of Europe have finally come to understand is that soft power is ultimately a threat to another's economy and they have twisted and plaited theirs together so well that any collapse of one could very well result in the collapse of all which, in the event, would be like pouring gasoline on a fire.

It will be interesting to watch the financiers going up against the chemists and alchemists in a war to the death. I mean we're talking about Europe right? It's not like anybody there has guns. On the other hand, not many had guns in Rwanda either.