Going Up or Down

Most probably both - In flames that is, in the Middle East, that's where.

Just when you think things there are as bad as they can get, events explode and prove one wrong! Even a strong dose of watching a rebroadcast of C-Span 2 program featuring Gino Strada and Howard Zinn has failed to raise the cloud of sensed doom engendered by the developments of the last few days.

It seems quite possible that more despair will feed the beast of violence and mutual annihilation.

It seems trivial that the most advanced countries are meeting in St. Petersburg for conferencing on financial/trade matters - when is there going to be a global peace summit? How many innocents are going to be sacrificed this time - Strada had some interesting statistics on who the actual victims of warfare are. If memory serves me correctly, he gave the highest number of losses (57%)as affecting those under age of 14, and one other figure stuck in my head, the actual combatants deaths are only 7%. I have tried to find internet source to link to for tables he used but haven't yet located them.Strada was a military (Italian) surgeon in Afghanistan and many other areas of conflict.He has a book out. Green Parrots: A War Surgeon's Diary Green parrots refers to a type of miniature land mine strewn generouly over Afghanistan by the Russians during their conflict there. You can easily see why he developed an interest in the theme of his book.

Here is a link to an article that Zinn wrote:

ahttp://progressive.org/?q=mag_zinn0905

Is the continuing nightmare of war going to destroy humanity?

graysmoke