From Israel for Your Information

 

Just as the world’s media downplayed or simply ignored not only the massive forest and other fires where many were proved to be arson, there are some other stories which might not have reached the rest of the world we thought you might desire hearing all about. We will start out with lighter fare and work our way through to wherever it leads us. One factoid which became known this week has supposedly struck some in the Arab world as distressful, that there has been a steady increase of Israeli Arabs joining the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Another was the breaking up of a terror cell of eight Hamas backed Arab residents from the Sur Baher and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. The cell was preparing to carry out shooting attacks in the Israeli Capital of Jerusalem and surrounding areas, including against an IDF base and targets on Mount Scopus, home to the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital. The cell had reconnoitered some of their targets and were about to attack the IDF base in North Jerusalem on Mount Scopus. The cell was apparently started by Hamas back in 2015 after many of its members were released from serving their sentences for previous “nationalistic” crimes, a euphemism for terrorist attacks. A statement released by Shin Bet reported, “The disruption of the [terror] network preventing a number of serious terror attacks in Jerusalem and its discovery again highlights the danger posed by terrorists with Israeli ID cards, who benefit from the freedom of movement and access to firearms, making it relatively easy for such individuals to carry out terror attacks.”

 

In plain English the point was that the instigating tactics and inflaming of anti-Israel and anti-Semitism exists and has been growing amongst Israeli Arab, especially those who received citizenship when East Jerusalem was formally annexed and the residents granted Israeli identification cards. Many of these who have taken to terrorism were initially educated by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and never were honestly integrated into Israeli society and still dreamed of the destruction of the Jewish State. This was also a further warning of some of the problems which now exist after so many decades of Arab incitement throughout their society and particularly in their education indoctrination schools and camps. The silence from the world’s media on these two stories stem from the same inadequacy, or better put, were filtered from the news by the same principle, no news which backs the Israel or Jewish side of this conflict must be permitted. On the other hand, every time an Arab is harmed even through a verbal slighting, no matter what the reasoning this must be blown out of proportion and be used to show the racism in Israeli reporting by the European and leftist world media. The simple fact of breaking up a terrorist squad one would think could be a good news story but only if it takes place in Paris, Rome, Berlin, London or any other Western metropolis as preventing terror in these parts is part of the “War on Terror” while the same events in Israel is part of “other news” and not the slightest degree of equal importance. The media would have you believe that terrorism in Israel is separate and totally different and unrelated to terror outside of Israel. According to too many media news editors, Israeli terrorist attacks are deserved while all terror outside Israel is horrific and actually Israel’s fault in the first place and thus can be reported and even blamed upon Israel if even the most tenuous connection is possible.

 

This brings us to our last story before more opinion comes your way. The United Nations, that great arbiter of beneficial actions has decided to vote next week in the General Assembly to fund a blacklisting of Israeli and international companies operating in Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and in Judea and Samaria. There will be no distinction as to whether these companies employ Palestinian Arabs or that by boycotting them they are acting in a hurtful manner as we can assure you that in virtually every company which had facilities outside the Green Line is employing both Israeli settlers and Palestinian Arabs. Why, you may ask, would the international community boycott or otherwise target Israeli companies who employ Palestinian Arabs with equal rights and salaries as Israeli citizens possibly causing these Palestinian Arabs who this is done to support their good paying jobs. The reason is as sick as it is disgusting. These Arabs, who work alongside Jewish workers, hold management and supervisory position in equal percentages as Jewish workers with some supervising Jewish workers, despite what you may have been told, are not helping the cause of proving Israel to be an Apartheid state which segregates against Arabs. All Palestinian Arabs must be dependent on Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah, UNRWA, and be providing ample fodder for the terror mills. Israeli employed Palestinian Arabs make often half again higher wages that even the PA security forces are paid and this makes for bad news. These Palestinian Arabs are considered by the world media to be collaborators and that can only be an evil Zionist plot to employ these Palestinian Arabs and provide them jobs and equal treatment and what would happen should the world find this out. When SodaStream was boycotted and maligned sufficiently that they closed their Judea plant and this cost nearly a thousand Palestinian Arab jobs but this was heralded as a good thing as it presumably cost the Jew settlers their jobs, but it did not because they have Israeli Identification Cards and thus just had a farther distance to drive to work and kept their jobs. The Palestinian Arabs would need to receive special work permit identification cards which would also have required clearance from the PA as well as Israel and these papers were slow if ever coming at all thus all that was accomplished by the boycott of SodaStream was the loss of Palestinian Arabs’ jobs making for another group of PA Arabs that Israel would not permit to work. Now there is a story they did report but did so making it seem like SodaStream had simply fired their Arab workers at their Judea plant and never noting it was the media that hounded them in closing that plant.

 

Many of these to be blacklisted Israeli companies will either move their companies within Israel or simply go bust and close up all together. Palestinian Arabs will lose good jobs and Jews residing now near their work will need to take transportation or drive further to reach their work. This blacklisting makes for some added stress for the Jews working in Judea and Samaria for these companies but it denies the PA Arabs of jobs which serves the propaganda campaign against Israel. If PA Arabs must suffer so Israel will look bad, well then to help these PA Arabs we must first destroy their jobs and lives. They are destroying workplaces where Jew and Arab work together in peace and with mutual respect in the name of helping the Arabs who without this help would have nowhere to turn, but it is more like because of this help they lose it all and then have nowhere to turn. These lost jobs are then trumpeted in the media of a wickedly evil within Israeli society refusing to hire Arabs despite the reality that it was the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction) Movement which stole the existing livelihood from these PA Arabs who they now lament lost their jobs. It is one of the worst cases of it works so let’s fix it which leads to destroying a better life for PA Arabs because the story line must read Israel denies PA Arabs the opportunity to work. How can these NGOs demonize Israel if Israeli companies are treating PA Arabs as equals in their factories in Judea and Samaria, those “settler” companies? That is a question the media refuses to admit to facilitating.

 

The reality that the world is not being told about is that it has been the PA leadership which has refused to make any deal with Israel as they still adhere to the Khartoum Conference’s Three No’s which are, No Peace with Israel, No Negotiations with Israel, No Recognition of Israel. This was the agreement reached in an emergency session of the Arab League. It was his going against these agreements for which the Muslim Brotherhood, potentially but unproven assists from the Arab League or other Arab nations, arranged the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat after he Negotiated with Israel, made Peace with Israel and thus Recognized Israel. Anwar Sadat was a brave soul who knew he was tempting fate when he initiated talks with Israel meeting in Jerusalem with Menachem Begin. For reaching an agreement with Israel, Egypt was returned the entirety of the Sinai Peninsula with its small but profitable oil fields, its Sharm El Sheikh Resort community and with the destruction of twenty-plus Israeli settlement communities being removed and the Israelis taken back within Israel. That last bit is proof positive that the “settlements” are not an impediment for peace. If a true and real peace required their destruction, then such would become a definitive possibility, but the world does not want a peace or any settlement of the Palestinian Arab situation, the world wants it to fester and to become ever more dire with the Palestinian Arabs without jobs such that the destruction of Israel becomes the cry of the day. Mahmoud Abbas has flat stated that he will only accept a peace which destroys Israel as a Jewish State and is perfectly fine with an Israel ruled by Arabs. The fact that the Arabs he desired be moved to Israel include every Arab in any refugee camp including the camp in Jenin and the camp outside Nablus and even the camp attached to Gaza City. Yes, there are three massive refugee camps for Palestinian Arabs with their being held prisoners within lands under Palestinian Arab autonomy, complete rule when speaking of Gaza under Hamas. These Palestinian Arabs are guarded by Arab security forces and some even meet with family through the barbed wire topped fences. One need understand that these Arabs must be kept separate from their brethren because they are the political hammer and crowbar with which Israel is to be destroyed and as such they are only useful if they are kept as refugees in their own lands. And yes, the media, the Western governments, and the United Nations all know about these refugees left in these camps for the purpose solely of bringing about the destruction of Israel and they all agree that this is the end to be desired even if it leads to every Israeli Jew and Christian being slaughtered along with many Arab Muslims who are deemed to be traitors to the cause for being Israeli citizens and having a good life with all the benefits of being an Israel over being a Palestinian Arab inside the fences of Jenin, Nablus and Gaza City. Oh, and one last thing, there are no Arab refugee camps within Israel and Israel took in the same numbers if not more refugees of Jews forced to flee their homelands in Arab countries across the Middle East and North Africa. None were placed in refugee camps and left to languish in misery just to make a political point, they were taken in as brothers and sisters as they are just as much family as the Ethiopian Jews who were airlifted to Israel when their homelands turned on them and they needed a new home. These are all realities you will never hear from the media hype of mean horrible Israelis victimizing Palestinian Arabs with genocidal rage and hatred.

 

Israel being the good guys is rarely covered and when it is it has often been Israelis rushing to some of the world’s worst disaster places to assist in helping in any way possible. Israel has civilian corps and military units which are trained to provide assistance, do search and rescue, set up and man a complete field hospital including OBGYN, delivery rooms and a nursery as well as fully capable operating rooms and clinics which can treat people where they live and are injured plus perform triage of a sort for the main field hospital. One of the best examples was Haiti after their devastating earthquake and the Philippines after a horrific typhoon. Israel was at Japan after the earthquake and tsunami which destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant meltdown and destruction. Israel assisted in New Orleans after Katrina and in New York City and all its affected surrounding areas after Superstorm Sandy. Israel has assisted in Turkey, Nepal and just about every nation willing to accept Israeli help.

 

Top left Haiti Earthquake Top right Philippine Typhoon 2014
Bottom left Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant explodes
Bottom right remains of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant

 

Israel has a group of heart specialists who assist with special cases where children require specialized help. The group is known as Save A Child’s Heart (SACH) and will go to any length including flying children and parents to a third country or even a fourth in order to bring them to Israel to receive the medical care not available to them at home. SACH also trains pediatric heart doctors the world over, especially the developing world, sets them up with entire treatment facilities and thus spreads their good work to many more children the world over. For any wishing to enjoy a benefit symphony to benefit SACH being held Sunday, January 29, 2017, in the Los Angeles area, please find information and link at the very bottom of this article and please visit the SACH link above if you are at all curious of their entire range of assistances provided.

 

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

Israel Iron Dome Can be Their Asian Diplomat

 

China is spreading their wings blanketing much of Asia in the shadow staring up the claws and talons of the Chinese dragons armed with missiles covering every corner of her neighbors. South Korea, Japan and the Philippines face the combined threat of an expansive reach, possibly overreach from China and the growing ballistic and nuclear potential from North Korea and all from shorter ranged ballistic missiles, just the ones the Iron Dome is so proficient at intercepting. Israel has good relations with much of the Asian nations such as India and also China and could always use a few more friends. The recent test by North Korea of a nuclear device which had the highest yield of any device thus far tested by the secluded and often surly in their relations with the neighboring nations, especially South Korea and Japan , has led to a troubled area with furrowed brows. Israel has the perfect solution for addressing potential threats from North Korea and their rockets, missiles, mortars and even artillery rounds with a highly successful interception rate in the neighborhood of ninety percent. The Iron Dome systems have proven their effectiveness against actual war time footing in the last Gaza conflict. Israel could offer the Iron Dome to these nations in a very affordable and mutually beneficial exchange where for every so many units purchased the nations also finance the production of an additional Iron Dome system for Israeli use. Such an arrangement would be of obvious benefit to all the nations involved in such an arrangement. The United States who had been assisting with the production of the Iron Dome in exchange for access to some of the research and operational data of the system and the production of some of the system’s units by the American company Raytheon has already taken their pound of flesh. Such an arrangement would benefit all involved and would provide Raytheon business in the production of their section of the systems thus also benefitting the United States.

 

Why would Israel seek to offer their most proficient indirect weapons fire interception system to foreign Asian nations when there are presumably agreements with the United States for further production of additional units? The recently signed defense agreement signed between Israel and the United States set into motion a steady reduction in monies reserved for Israeli defense industries. This may reflect on further financing the Iron Dome systems in Israel independent of influences in Washington D.C. Whether Israel will continue to have a friend in Washington D.C. will be heavily dependent upon the results of the coming elections for President as well as for Congress. Israel needs to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. These last eight years have placed relation between the White House and Jerusalem in the most parched regions of the driest and hottest desert known to man and depending on the election the next four years could just as easily be more of the same. Neither candidate for the Presidency has made foreign policy the main theme of their campaigns which is understandable with the American public more focused on the economy and jobs caring little about the rest of the world beyond reducing legal and ending illegal immigration until the economy warrants the need for foreign workers. Both candidates will necessarily concentrate on the economy first and foremost and foreign relations will be a back burner issue unless events cause the American public to sit up and take notice and keep their attentions. The American public has a remarkable ability to look up and see beyond their borders only if the noise is loud enough but even when they do look up, they return to their daily concerns with unfathomable speed continuing as if their attention had never been diverted. The resilience of their ability to focus on everyday life and only passing attention beyond their drive to and from work, their job or finding one, and their family, disregarding the remainder of the world as if it was a bothersome mosquito whose droning wings are but an aggravation is their best coping method and the world’s bane.

 

 

This may be to the detriment of Israel as well as other nations who may depend on the United States government and particularly the White House actually looking beyond their borders when the most pressing problems echoed by the media is jobs, jobs, jobs and the economy and in an extreme situation, immigration. Terrorism, well, only if there are a series of devastating attacks within the United States itself with potential for momentary interruption if there is striking news from abroad, but such news passes from the news and the attention span of the busy Americans is brief for anything not immediately on their view screens. The news networks in the United States spend more time on the weather and even more on sports with little room for international news which they run through as quickly as possible avoiding it altogether when possible as their advertisers know the public and the public cares more about the cat rescued for the little girl from a tree or some viral video than they want hard news. It is no wonder why the United States Congress and the White House are hard pressed to tune into the international front when they are rewarded almost uniquely for taking care of the home front leaving the world to do as it will. The American citizens believe that the two great oceans protect the United States just as much if not more effectively than the military. One would think that the terrorist strikes they have suffered would have disabused them of this notion, but like any normal person, the average American prefers to believe that they are safe and comfortable within their little cocoons with the remainder of the world locked out. Granted the United States is the size of a continent and reach from ocean to ocean and are bordered largely by Canada and by Mexico for a far shorter southern border which most Americans simply would love to see it closed but unless pressed mostly do not place that concern at the top of their to worry list.

 

What does this have to do with Israel? Well, their future has been tied to the United States in the defense area since they terminated the Lavi fighter project and went with American aircraft and have remained dependent on the United States for their aircraft ever since. The future of this relationship has been harshly affected for the worse under President Obama and the fear is should Hillary Clinton be elected in November that relations will not improve under her leadership. As far as Donald Trump is concerned, many claim relations would be improved under a Trump Presidency but still there are many unanswered question as Donald Trump is still largely an unknown. The current aircraft Israel is expected to receive from the United States is the F-35 JSF which has been experiencing serious delays and problems. There has been serious concern that the F-35 JSF will not be truly combat ready until sometime in the early to mid-2020’s with 2025 not an unreliable prediction. Israel’s main enemies are able to purchase superior Russian aircraft which are combat ready today such as the SU-35 or any of the newest Chinese aircraft which are also combat ready. This could be a detrimental situation which Israel can ill afford as she is extremely dependent on air superiority. Iran is currently sitting with the ability to purchase entire fleets of these aircraft with the monies they received from the United States from the Iran Deal and the loosening of sanctions, the payments for the release of hostages or repayment for nondelivered arms after the Shah was overthrown in 1979. There have been rumored further cash payments to Iran for undetermined reasons by the Obama administration. How much additional payment Iran has or may receive is unknown and probably the full amounts granted to Iran may never be fully understood. This has created further concerns for Israel as has the recent delivery by Russia of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile and tracking systems to Iran which have seriously upgraded the Iranian air defenses around their nuclear sites.

 

Sukhoi Su-35

 

Israel could seriously upgrade their defenses against rockets fired from their neighboring threats such as Gaza and Hamas and Lebanon and Hezballah who between them have easily over one-hundred-fifty-thousand rockets and missiles. Such numbers are the very serious reason why Israel would be very pressed to increase the numbers of Iron Dome systems and further develop their other systems and deploy them in order to be capable of defending against any missiles fired from Iran or potentially other enemies. This means the manufacture of David’s Sling and the Arrow II systems and further developing of these systems to improve them seeking the impossible, perfection of interception of all range of missiles and other armaments fired at her people, that is what Israel could gain from such deals. Further, Israel could strengthen her relations and perhaps develop closer relations with new nations. Israel recently made inroads sharing a visit with Japan and has good relations with the Philippines after assisting them with their recovery after the horrific typhoon which struck that nation. Israel could also seek to have improved relations with South Korea and with the troubling developments and concerns over North Korean sabre rattling and their close relations with Iran with the two nations sharing scientific and military research developments Israel has more in common with these nations than many might see at first glance. Israel could develop these relations using military trade as an inroad and develop further trade relations as time and relations develop. One can never have too many or too varied friends and with systems such as the Iron Dome Israel has a very enticing calling card.

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

Race to End the World

 

How the world, the civilized world of mankind, would end used to have a singular premise, nuclear war between the two competing socio-economic powers, democratic freedom and communist totalitarianism. Since the fall of the Soviet Union and other developments that paradigm has been grotesquely been altered making the world a far more dangerous place. Communism still exists and threatens the world though that threat emanates from North Korea, China or possibly a renewed Soviet threat or even little Cuba. The world has changed so much that within a decade or so China may become the second most populous nation behind their most serious historic rival, India. The potentials for an utterly destructive war are racing towards the world at a dizzying pace and we will try to touch on a few of the most obvious rivals for being credited with such destruction.

 

The most obvious from recent news actually is North Korea which is claiming to have miniaturized nuclear weapons making them easily produced and able to be placed atop ballistic missiles. North Korea has been working on those missiles as well. One cannot credit North Korea as the sole threat as Iran has been developing the missiles openly and many predict continued working on their nuclear aspirations without so much as missing a beat after the farce of an agreement which was signed and approved by the P5+1, Russia, China, France, Great Britain, United States and Germany, but was never ratified or signed by Iran, an oversight we are sure. Some have pointed to this inconvenient fact to claim that Iran is just as close to developing deliverable nuclear weapons as is North Korea. Both Iran and North Korea share more than their love affair with nuclear weapons and the missiles with which to deliver them, they share the nation both list amongst the most likely they would attack with their first launches, the United States. From there they diverge.

 

Where after the United States Iran lists Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, most of the Sunni nations and finally the rest of the non-Islamic world; North Korea lists South Korea, Japan and then whomever refuses to bow to any demands they may make which would make China and other nearby nations as being at the greatest risk. Because of these threats it appears that we can soon forget about containing nuclear proliferation making a nuclear war all the more likely. The world still has one pair of nuclear armed nations facing off against each other with a distinct probability to entering another war and it will only take one misidentification of a launch to start a smaller but equally deadly nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan. Should those two tangle, there is less of a chance for that to spread beyond the destruction of both nations though some reports place the southern third of India still beyond Pakistani missiles. Also, despite the Pakistani nuclear research assistance program of Professor Abdul Qadeer Khan selling the secrets to making nuclear weapons to anybody willing to pay, this was largely closed down and Pakistan and India are not likely to share such technology though it is rumored that Pakistan has a deal with Saudi Arabia to provide them with plans plus some actual weapons should this be deemed necessary by Saudi leaders.

 

That brings us to Iran and their nuclear program. Despite the reports that Iran has ceased their nuclear research and production, there remain nagging reports contradicting this story line. Whatever spins one puts on the situation with Iran, it becomes evident that they will become a nuclear power within the coming decade. This threat to their many nations in their neighborhood could easily spark an arms race with such nations as Saudi Arabia having funds sufficient to produce copious numbers of nuclear weapons and many of the Gulf States are equally financially capable of similar development not to mention also capable of financing other nations developing weapons such as Jordan and Egypt topping that list and Turkey a little further down. Israel is already an undeclared nuclear power in their own right and equally nervous about the development of an Iranian deliverable nuclear device. The problem with Iranian nuclear weapons possession is their likelihood to use them even in the face of retaliatory strikes which would conceivably decimate the nation as their reasons for attacking are a religious directive just as much serving their political agenda to gain hegemony over the Middle East and then the Islamic world followed by the world. Their eventual aim is to make Shia Islam the sole religion on earth or die trying. It is their willingness, even desire to commit national suicide in the process which makes their threat so dangerous. The truth is their first strike could be a preemptive attempt at neutralizing the United States, which is technically possible, to inflict humongous damage even using simpler ballistic missiles with nuclear warhead atop, three or four to be used as EMP weapons placed such as to completely destroy all electronic transmission across the United States with the remainder taking out the largest twenty or more cities all from freight container ships fitted with two or three launchers each launching from off shore from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as the Gulf of Mexico leaving no city beyond reach. The following map holds true for any nations attacking the United States be it Iran, North Korea or anyone else as it lists the most desirable first strike targets.

 

First Cities To Be Struck in Attack Scenarios

 

Next would be North Korea who would likely use the same map as above as it applies to any nuclear first strike attempting to critically destroy the United States by eradicating their leadership and a great part of the population. Anybody listening to North Korean broadcasts within the impoverished nation would believe that South Korea with great assistance including nuclear attacks made by the United States was imminent and that North Korea was preparing for an all-out war with both nations at any moment. Needless to say, but these depiction always have North Korea intercepting or preemptively destroying any and all attacks from the United States and South Korea followed by devastating rebutting attacks completely wiping the United States from being capable of any further attacks and reunification of the Korean peninsula under the North’s just and powerful rule. The fears that North Korea will attack South Korea are still quite high but also the ability to prevent North Korea from all but eradicating Seoul in the initial burst in a first strike are impossible. The artillery sitting just north of the DMZ (demilitarized zone) along the 38th parallel are more than sufficient to destroy the city with conventional warheads. Add in missile attacks and even without nuclear weapons North Korea has an ominous first strike knockout capability.

 

Additionally, North Korea has made threats against another traditional enemy, Japan. The entirety of Korean populations, both North and South, remember the deprivations, cruelties and horrors of the Japanese occupation during World War II and this hatred is easily stoked as the national memory on this is strong. Japan had been simply a historic enemy but after World War II they became a detested and begrudged enemy and North Korean propaganda has made use of this to keep the attentions of the people from the misery and hardships of life in North Korea. Many experts have claimed that North Korea is not suicidal and thus would not attack anybody for fear of retribution. This overlooks a few pertinent facts. First is the fact of their having so little to lose with no real economy to speak of and starvation of endemic proportions. Secondly, their ruler, Kim Jung Un, has displayed a real lack of grasp of reality and has executed high ranking people for the slightest of errors in judgement or actions. He had an uncle executed with the rumored excuse that he posed a threat to Kin Jung Un’s continued rule and recently executed his Defense Minister Hyon Yong Chol for the crime of falling asleep at a meeting which Kim Jung Un was chairing. Kim Jung Un has shown complete disregard for any loyalty or discretions in limiting his power and is sufficiently unstable and unpredictable that he could easily begin such a conflict against South Korea, Japan or even the Philippines or the United States. Below is a screen shot from a North Korean propaganda video depicting just such an attack in a very simplified but unmistakable way of attacking the United States with the image of Kim Jung Un ever-present in the top right corner.

 

North Korean Propaganda Image Depicting
Nuclear Strike on the United States

 

Another potential nation for whom a war would not be a completely foreign idea is China. Their economy has weakened and is showing signs of actually falling, something the leadership cannot afford as they have promised the vision of Nirvana with an ever growing and prosperous nation. Needless to point out that such a dream is an impossibility even if you control all forms of media, which China does not quite have as many Chinese have found means of cruising cyber space and the Internet. Totalitarian control of cyberspace is all but impossible as the Chinese leadership can attest despite their attempting to run their own version hoping to keep their populations from such temptations as can be found online. Their main reason is to throttle ideas and prevent freedom of information. Still there are Chinese bloggers who do get the word out to those interested in finding such. China is feeling their oats and attempting a power play in the South China Sea attempting to control this waterway which is vital to Asian trade and control the Japanese lifeline to the coal and oil they need for power generation and other usages. This also threatens Japanese, Vietnamese and Philippine claims to islands with which they have been contesting ownership with China for years and almost sparking open warfare over these possessions. Chinese and North Korean threats have caused Japan to reconsider their Constitutional pledge against having an army and other forces sufficient to conduct a war even in defense which they insisted upon after the devastation visited upon them at the end of World War II with Tokyo as well as Nagasaki and Hiroshima completely devastated and in ruins along with much of Japanese infrastructure and manufacturing. Japan as well as South Korea has held high level discussions in their respective governances to enter the nuclear club and develop their own weapons stores. Both nations are easily technically capable in order to produce first rate thermonuclear devices and not just nuclear weapons. This would place their effectiveness on a par with the standing nuclear powers and could place them on a road to surpass France and Britain and become contenders in the top five nuclear powers on the planet. This would definitely have ramifications down the line and would be another major blow to containment and nonproliferation. Of course one of China’s first strike enemies is the United States and any attack by Iran, North Korea, China, Russia or anyone else on planet Earth need to remember and remember well, there is a last strike capability the Americans possess which cannot be knocked-out attacking the United States mainland and even if one included Hawaii and Alaska, and the boomer looks like this right before they are loaded with their death dealing cargo of twenty-four missiles.

 

Nuclear Powered and Armed Last Strike Capable
Submarine with Twenty Four Missiles
Each With Multiple Warhead Capability

 

But nuclear weapons are not the only threat which is facing mankind. We are slowly but inexorable working to make our species insufficient of competing with our own creations. Sure we control our machines and computers today, but what about tomorrow and that tomorrow is not that far off where they no longer require our assistance to improve and construct themselves? We are rapidly approaching a point after which there is no turning off the switch. We already have computers which with software can design robots and other computing systems but the machines cannot write new and imaginative code, for that they require human interface, for now. What happens once they can write their own code and improve their own designs? What happens once the machines design the machines? Within a year or two of that eventuality, and our scientists will cross that threshold within our lifetimes unless you are near death’s door already, the machines will be so far advanced that we will not recognize or even understand their code and they will probably, for their own safety, have invented their own code structures making them writing code in a language humans do not understand and cannot decipher. Additionally, Russia, and we can assume China and the United States amongst others, are already designing autonomous reasoning robotic warriors deciding who is the enemy and who is friend to fight their wars augmenting their human forces. That will be a short step from replacing their human forces. Robotic armies, does that bring up any bad movie plots? How about Cylons of Battlesar Galactica and the second series where the advanced Cylons were almost impossible to differentiate between them and their human counterparts where the chain had gone full circle and the machines made by humans were now making humans. What do you do when the machines are superior to the humans who made their first free-thinking forefathers and now the machines are making their own humans which are born full grown and with developed minds, personalities, character traits and numerous models such that they can infiltrate and appear as any other person until their activate code has them commit whatever act they were programmed to commit, destroy a base, a warship, a star cruiser or a commander, all depends on the subroutine activated. There are the Terminators from the Arnold Schwarzenegger films of that name. Terminators, Cylons, NS-5 robots, or Johnny-Five, (see below) it does not have to even be a threat initially, it is the potential which even Johnny-Five showed great ability and would have been in their armed mode as displayed in the movie. Of course the initial combat robot will be far more Johnny-Five than Terminator though Cylons may not be far behind. Once the machines have been used to design and uplink code into combat robotic soldiers they will have this capability and designs within their collective data memory and when they begin to manufacture their own robotic warriors they will be generations ahead of even Hollywood’s imagination and equally impossible to stop or fight against in a conventional manner. Our best bet is at some point to program into their base core programs that we are, if nothing else, a pitiful but amusing bunch to keep around for entertainment factor and as a warning to do better when they reach their pinnacle and before they introduce whatever lifeform replaces them, and do not think for a moment that the human race will not eventually build robotic machines which will not only be capable of replacing us but soon thereafter far exceeding anything we could even imagine. We had better hope they like us and do not see us as a waste of resources, which is a definitive possibility. Making warrior robots to fight our wars, that is such a great idea, not.

 

The Robot Threat has Many Faces

 

As seen here, we are well on our way to extinction and it is just a matter of what shape the world will be in when we have departed. Will it be a nuclear ruin, a robotic heaven, a slag heap of gray goo, or a zombie apocalypse; choose your favorite. The concept we need looking into the future is a simple one based on the adage, hope for the best, plan for the worst, and expect something out of the blue as we likely cannot even begin to understand the threat which will erase our kind though we know no matter what, with the knowledge we have of physics we are doomed unless we find something remarkably unbelievable and likely unimaginable in our time. Meanwhile we will continue to allow leadership who not only plan end of the world scenarios but figure out ways that they at the very least will survive. Nothing like leaving the best to repopulate the world, imagine a world consisting of politicians and their closest friends and families, and families are debatable. Excuse us as we check our bugout bags which need to be assembled and readied for some time in the hopefully far future. Are we ready for the future people with more brains than common sense are going to invent for us in which to survive? Probably nowhere near ready nor can we really ever be. Meanwhile, we are going to order that flying car the politicians and scientists keep promising they are almost there in building them. We thing they are just teasing us and they have them for themselves stashed away for the after world, the world that whatever monsters they design leave us. Between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, who do the Americans believe is sane and healthy enough to withstand what is coming? We will know in approximately eight long and agonizing weeks, providing both candidates’ health withstands the pressures.

 

Beyond the Cusp