Swompdonkey

SITZKRIEG

A hundred years hence, some historians prone to periodization and the identification of historical parallels, as problematic as both these approaches may be, will no doubt look upon the first decade of the twenty-first century and debate the moment at which the West ended its policy of accomodation with Radical Islam and entered "the next stage".

Historians looking for the ominous signposts along the road to the conflict may well point to this development and the current showdown with Iran, to argue that we had already entered the phony war by 2006.

The early tremors often portend calamities to come, as the vagaries of history illustrate:

In an act of terror, an obscure young nationalist fires a pistol into the motorcar of an imperial heir, killing him and his pregnant wife. Six weeks later, millions of people are engulfed by conflict on an unimagined scale.

A public building is razed, and a dissafected former Corporal rises to absolute power amidst the turmoil of a worldwide depression, paving the way for the most horrific war ever visited upon civilization.

The seeds may well be sown.... if so, what will civilization harvest?