If it walks like a duck

Well, As predicted Turkey has bombed the Northern Kurds. Any excuse will do. Naturally the PKK will defend themselves and thats the end of that cease fire. Makes you wonder if Turkey really is on the side of ISIS or just used the excuse to take a pop at ISIS in order to get at the PKK, who they really hate and its mutual. . Naturally Turkey will deny it and blame it on the PKK and we should always take Turkeys word for it.. After all they didnt walk a million Armenians into the desert and leave them to die in 1915 did they? Hell no!
That old religious divide is a big thing in Turkey and cost millions of lives over the years. The Ottoman empire had a big area and spent a lot of time sorting out religious problems. Usually at the end of a sword.  Hence the problems of the Balkans and a few other areas of the middle east that now are fractured along the usual tribal, ethnic and religious lines and in flames.

There by hangs the rub!

For it beggars belief that in 2015 in a supposed multi cultural society we are still so tribal, but we are. Ive seen it all over the world. Folk from different tribal, ethnic or religious beliefs in the main do not get on well. Im afraid, these divides have amply demonstrated that intergration and multi-culturalism  does not stand a chance to succeed. This has been and is being amply demonstrated not only in the middle east but eastern Europe.

For 60 years the peace was kept by two powerful counter forces America and Russia. Before that and particularly in Europe the Russians kept peace between many differing tribal and ethnic groups by being tough on dissenters and breakers of the peace. They were also far from backward in getting the Cossacks in to sort out any group requiring further assistance in leading a less obtrusive life style. For example the Jews of Eastern Europe well remember the pogroms that particularly in Poland were such a feature. Now that empire has collapsed the old fractures have come to the surface, long forgotten disputes and tensions have flared into wars and ethnic based terrorism. If you link it with the the same problems in Africa and the  Middle East these murderous disputes would fill the page. Indeed, there is little of the globe that is not feeling ethnic, tribal or religious tensions.

What to do about it. Well, those tensions have been evident since the dawn of time and no doubt as long as I draw breath they will continue. Unfortunately history proves there are only two resolutions that last; War and fear. We hope the UN will sort it, but it will not the UN is the sum of its parts and thus riddled with the same tensions it is supposed to sort.It is open to the same problems its member states complain of and so might is right will prevail no matter what the UN says.. It has not the will or tools to do the job. Indeed, I often wonder, having seen so much tribal, ethnic and religious based conflict in my life, if it is better to let it burn itself out. In Bosnia our (the UN) efforts to stop the war added two years and thousands more to the death list in that sorry state. It has likewise done more harm than good in a few other conflicts.. In fact it seems the UN is not more now than a talking shop. Sad to see such a superb idea brought to nowt for wont of will power by its member states.

Perhaps the answer lies, as so often, in the past and in this case we could learn something from Clausterwitz who says that war is politics by other means and that to wage it requires the state to give all to win it. For not to commit to total war means more cost in lives and treasure because it lasts longer.. He has a point. Quick sharp war followed by committed peace seems to be the only war we prosper as a race. To do it half arsed, as in Vietnam or with no exit strategy as in Iraq just prolongs the agony, leaves massive power vacuum which then releases repressed ethnic, religious or cultural differences to run riot as the state collapses and is replaced by hundreds of folk with a repressed grudges against their neighbor. Simplistic you may think. But im afraid people are...very simplistic and no amount of liberal hopeful multi cultural oxbridge educated intellectual clap trap spouted in the hollowed halls of learning concerning the law and rights of man mean a damn when your stuck in the middle of a prime evil war between Sunni and Shia chasing you around with a bloody big sword or Hutu and Tutsi or Georgian and Russian, or Turk and Kurd or Millwall and Chelsea Supporter. The thing you need then is a bloody big tank.

So, the world needs a policeman again and it needs to go back to sending people who walk softly and carry a very big stick able to chastise separate the fools, get the tribal elders and religious nutters back in their box and smack the legs of the people till they learn to get on again. Well, what else do you do with a bunch of intolerant people who will not take the first move and put the brick down?

If you know then please tell the UN because they sure as hell dont know!