Already? Wow, those guys are right on top of things!

That happened, then this happened.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_the_Philippines

FYI - I have an eastern european last name (as my screen name shows), but am actually Filipino.


Have you ever been to the Philippines?


My Grandfather was a Filipino Guerrilla Fighter during WWII when the Philippines was occupied by the Japanese. He fought alongside the Americans, and the stories he shared were of courage and valor shown by the Americans. He had the utmost respect for those gentlemen...


The same goes for quite a bit of my extended family. An uncle became a parapeligic when he stepped on a landmine while fighting alongside the Americans…. Like my Grandfather, he has nothing but respect.

__________________
-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

When the US severs relations with a country our people come home and their people go home. By 'people' I mean the embassy staff and any citizens that wish to leave.

The US had to wait until today to sever relations because a number of Americans were still there due to bad seas.

After they departed Libya's waters diplomatic relations were severed and sanctions were imposed.

As a Canadian I would think the powers that be especially in north america and europe would have preffered the status quo over what is occuring in the middle east presently.

There is every possibility the oil fields throughout the middle east will be totally nationalized and every oil cartel contract thrown out. I know if I were a citizen of any one of the middle east countries I would soon be agitating for it.

Probably justifyable as far too many games have probably been played to limit payments to the smallest royalties possible in the majority of cases. How the majority of middle eastern people have landed up living in poverty seems to be a direct result of this. Their countries exploited to death may be a more realistic description.

I think it was just suprising that the change is occuring so fast to the politicians in developed countries. The slow responses caused from the suprise element. They really do not know what to do.

I also always thought my standard of living was substidized or enabled by people being treated unfairly in other parts of the world for all my life. Or them just exploited to death again for our benifit and the benifit of the corporations.

Primarily because of the electronic networks etc existing today I expect still further action by many societies to occur sooner than later. The clock is definatly ticking now. You cannot blame them for wanting a reasonable slice of the pie. Or at least what they are entitled to.

The bare minumin of giving them or leaving the crumbs will no longer suffice. Basically stealing from them by anyone is over as well. They are fighting for the right to live in a reasonable secure fashion from their assets. They will not be denied.

Actually this could have easily been forcast much earlier and sensible attempts made to stop the insane need for so much oil in north america. It is too late now to respond quickly enough. Or the usual inertia to respond should do a lot more damage to the economy. Wait and see is not always wise.

Basically we have no real option to serious change and we resist it. This is far more damaging than changing with the need.

This is also contencious but it is a real shame some form of legitimate health care for all the citizens of the United States was not enacted. Smarter people hopefully will be starting to see the possible folly of not having done so pretty soon. Unregulated capatilisim out of control is legalised theft. .The space in the economy is no longer really there to tollerate it.

If we do not rapidly adjust to todays realities in the world. I think the handwritting is on the wall. Our attempts to keep the status quo inside north america is no longer realistic in my opinion. .

North America needs leadership with a forward vision. All we really have had at best. For a very long time and likely to continue is politicians fighting bush fires as best they can after they errupt. It is getting very obvious they have been losing a massive amount of ground with this approach. The current systems seem to allow no other form of leadership.

The potential for massive losses is now becoming more certain.. The individual should try to protect himself and his family as much as he can. It is no longer reasonable to expect the oncoming changes to be dealt with in a rational way by governments. They are far more likely instead to land up basically helpless.

The only bright side if there is a bright side is these new societies will require a scaling up of manufacturing for a period of time. Plus there is a time frame that is unknown before they rationalise their new systems. This time frame may be the only break we get to change what we can to accomadate what will be. Historically from recent history we will unfortunatly not use this time wisely.

Forget about the price of oil. At this point nobody really knows how and when this is going to play out. It is fairly certain though that the price will change enough to impact almost everything we presently have known in one fashion or another in north america.

How inflationary this will all become is another serious unknown. I wish I could be more upbeat about these things. I seriously believe we have created certain imbalances over time. These are going to prove to be very difficult or almost impossible to deal with.

The time for the payoff is incrementally growing shorter all the time. Manipulating and manovering are no longer valid concepts. Dealing with reality is valid but almost totally ignored at this time in history..

Wars are basically fought over economics. This option is not probable or desirable by todays citizens. So there are no options other than adjusting to realities. Or going down the tubes. Perhaps overall an extreme viewpoint I know.