Why the fighting in the Middle East should concern us.

I think that as Malaysians, we as a nation, are too complacent.

As a Grandfather and a Employer, I think we must learn to be more paranoid of our current comfort  as well as future well being.  One aspect of this fear of mine is our nations control over its Food Security, Inflation control &  huge dependence on Exports earnings, which is a crucial element of our current sense of comfortable living.

Long story made simple, if World War III has already started, would we even know it?

Or would it only be evident in the rear-view mirror?

In my father’s youth, he remembered WW 1 as only a story here in Asia that the British used as a reason why its colonies should be fully galvanised to support monetarily and commonly.

Our countries resources and manpower went a long ways towards contributing to that far away war. In WW 2, things in Asia changed after Pearl Harbor was attacked.

We too became part of the War and all our families paid the ultimate price in sacrifice and loss.

Now, in 2016 once again the question of a world war is upon us.

The question is …are we aware of it?

A Third World War would be highly decentralized, complex, covert and tactically diverse, and it would transcend the country-vs-country paradigm.

Wars currently underway in the world are either ideological in a purely religious sense, or strictly economic with a view toward maximizing profits (as opposed to peddling communism or capitalism as ideologies).

Both of these phenomena are occurring simultaneously.

Today, news came that Turkey is going to war with Syria to fight the Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Iraq, we have the Boko Haram in Nigeria going to war with its people there, then there is the Moro nationalists fighting for Independence from Philippines. We also know that Pakistan, Turkmenistan , Libya, Afghanistan are all in their own wars, Sabah being claimed by the Philippines,Muslim Uighur in China fighting for independence, and various other groups throughout Africa, Asia and the Middle East  all at war with themselves-- with recruitment efforts and funding efforts that reach into developed Western nations -- these wars have one thing in common. They consists of belligerents in one type of conflict: religio-ideological.

They're essentially guerrillas of widely varying backgrounds, pulled from all over the world to fight with groups largely lacking in hierarchy and organization- Guerrilla warfare.

In Ukraine and other former soviet blocs, Russia is determined to once again reclaim these lands either by economic means or outright war & China for example has been gobbling up resources in South American and African countries without firing a shot.

Both these types of contemporary warfare -- religio-ideological and nation-state economic -- feature new tactics that we haven't seen before, most of which involve the leveraging of new technology for the purpose of psychological warfare.

Information gathering using Nano technology and space bound military satellite imagery are two common examples of using new forms of technology to overpower the enemy.

Social-media platforms are also utilised to distribute information and propaganda, and using cyber attacks to gain publicity or evoke public fear.

The second set of belligerents is comprised of nation-states, engaged in similarly decentralized economic warfare that isn't strictly limited to their own geographic boundaries or any politico-ideological agenda.

The emphasis on economics rather than on homeland perimeter defence or the defence of political ideology is what makes the current set of conflicts different from World War II and previous wars.

So, with all that said, how well do we actually know of what is happening around us today in the world at large?

With all of us, as Malaysians working hard day and night trying to just make it to the end of the month and saving our hard earned money for a better tomorrow…….what is the guarantee that our combined fate as law abiding citizens of this blessed nation would be any different from those individuals in this country, our fore fathers- during the 1940’s?

If knowledge truly maketh the man then now is the time to apply that knowledge to  ensure our  personal fate is not just left in the hands of others to play with as they see fit.