Columns

Another year passes

LEN TRIA, Uncommon Sense
Published: December 30, 2012

Another trip around ole Sol has been completed and we enter a new year that I hope will be better than the one ending. At least we will be pardoned from the unceasing election ads and the constant blabber of the partisan talking heads.

There is no reasoning anymore, just the ability to spin issues so they come out right for whoever is doing the spinning. The lap dogs of the media and have lain down with the "dogs of politics," and as the saying goes, have their share of fleas to live with.

We can look forward to several new taxes thanks to the "Affordable Health Care Bill," which is the mother of oxymorons. It doesn't pay to discuss the fiscal cliff because we may or may not be there by the time this is published.

One thing for sure is the economy is still a sick puppy and will take some time to recover if in fact it ever does. That is some of what is happening on the home front and the foreign front is even worse. Syria is still engaged in a bloody civil war that the U.S. has failed to stand with anyone, and now the Islamists have what seems to be the upper hand in the struggle.

So when Assad falls, as he must, the new powers will be even less inclined to look with favor upon the United States. The players at this point seem to be Russia and Iran both of whom are definitely not our friends. The administration has created a void in that area of the world and it surely will come back to haunt us in the future.

Libya is another foreign policy disaster, as is Tunisia, but the biggest problem will be Egypt. Egypt, which is the largest and most populous of the Middle Eastern countries, is making its way toward an Islamist state that will surely be nothing but a problem for the U.S. in the future. Iraq is dealing with another problematic country, namely Iran, whose nuclear ambitions have not been curtailed by our foreign policy.

The administration has minimized the role of America in this tinderbox region of the world. We are withdrawing assets as ostensibly as we are relocating our forces to the Pacific Rim due to the Chinese threat. Right now, China does not want confrontation with the United States, as their main concern is keeping their 1.3 billion people working in factories earning wages and buying consumer goods.

More importantly, they need the American market to keep that economic engine running, to keep those factories humming, thereby keeping the masses busy with work and not thought. Let us hope that 2013 will be a year of less violence in the world and especially here at home. Thousands of our troops will be coming home to be reunited with their families and perhaps there can be a period of calm in this mixed up world. Happy New Year to all!

Len Tria, a regular columnist for Hernando Today, lives in Spring Hill and is a former Hernando County commissioner.