Allan Trawinski - The Clash of Civilizations

The Clash of Civilizations

Allan Trawinski

Copyright 2017 Allan Trawinski

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2017

ISBN 978-1-63568-711-8 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63568-797-2 (Hard Cover)

ISBN 978-1-63568-712-5 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

To my Far East Angel

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

Now, why in the h am I writing a second edition to my book, you may ask? (Especially since the sales of the first edition were not all-that impressive! OK, OK, to be quite honest about it, the sales stunk!) Well, as I read, and re-read, the first edition, I quickly came to two obvious conclusions:

First, that the first edition was not really all that very well written, which is probably one of the reasons that it did not sell so very well. (Along with the fact that I may have overpriced it a wee bit, as well. OK, OK, to be quite honest about it, I overpriced it a LOT!)

Second, that the West Near East Clash of Civilizations keeps right on keeping on, and that any book about it needs to be constantly updated. Despite the relatively short period of time (3 years) since the publication of the first edition, I personally felt it important to study/analyze the impacts upon the Clash of the American presidential election of 2016 and American mid-term election of 2018, which I personally believe were both quite significant.

Because the first edition was a compilation of 21 historical cases taken from the annals of this historic Clash, I decided not to change/update any of those cases for this second edition. Nothing has changed any of the historical facts/details that surrounded each case, except for the number of years that had passed since each case took place, until the first edition of my book was published in April 2017. That information is found on the last page of each of those 21 cases, as well as in the Summary Table found in the Conclusion, Analysis, Recommendations, and Commentary at the end of the book,

Because I thought that it would have been more trouble than it would have been worth to make those 21 minor changes to the last page of each individual case, I decided to leave it up to the readers to simply add on four additional years in their own heads, when they came upon reading them, just as they were written for the first edition, and remain so in the second edition.

The two major updates/revisions that I did make in this second edition are:

First, the addition of a new Case 22: Post GWOT (Trump Card or the Jokers Wild: 2016 and Beyond), and

Second, the significant rewrite of the final Conclusions, Analysis, Recommendations, and Commentary found in the first edition, resulting from the addition of that new Case 22 in the second edition. I even changed its name to: Conclusions, Analysis, Recommendations, Commentary, and Predictions. Why? Because in doing the research for Case 22, I discovered evidence of developments that may have startling (or even a perilous, depending upon your point of view) impact upon the final outcome of the Clash. Despite my intention of trying to keep this study strictly neutral, I felt compelled to share them with you, because they have now become an integral part of the narrative. (Also, administratively, please note that in this case, since I was already updating/replacing the entire Conclusion anyway, I went ahead and did add in those additional four years to the figures in the Summary Table. So, while the figures in the table do not match the figures on the last pages of the cases, the figures in the table are the correct(ed) ones. Er, did I lose you?)

All of the new international focus that has been placed in the news lately upon the situation with the Peoples Democratic Republic of Korea (AKA North Korea), and the development of its long-range nuclear strike capability, since the publication of the first edition, not-with-standing, I have written little about that in this second edition. Why? Because I still believe that the North Korean issue is a mere sideshow for the West that has nothing to do with the Clash, which is the Big Top.

Nor does the tense situation with China, not even with the Wests problems/concerns over them as a dubious trading partner, economic rival, and expanding military power. Chinas threat is actually quite regional (confined to the Far East/Orient), and not global, in nature.

The same can be said about the activities of, for, by, to, with, and against, Russia and its President, Vladimir Putin, but with a twist. Despite all of that supposed outside/tangential activity: interfering, meddling, collusion, conspiracy, etc. none of that has changed my basic premise that Russia is a western country, and that it should be a natural ally with the United States and Europe in the Clash with the Near East. Hey, the Cold War is over (for almost 30 years, now!), and the West won! I got a medal and a certificate from the U.S. Department of Defense to prove it. The strategic focus of the West now still needs to be kept on the Near East, now, more than ever! There has been (too) much talk lately about Russian President Vladimir Putins interfering/meddling/colluding/conspiring in the 2016 American presidential elections, in favor of Donald Trumps presidential campaign, in order to defeat Hillary Clinton. Now that is such mindless bogus Bravo Sierra, that it should have been quickly dismissed after the election for three simple reasons:

First, no one can produce/name a single American voter who changed his vote, or forced/convinced someone else to change his vote from Clinton to Trump based upon Putins interference/meddling;

Second, why would Putin rather deal with Trump as the American President, instead of with a President Clinton in the foreign policy/diplomatic arena? Hey, Clinton was a marshmallow as the Secretary of State, and Putin knew that! Putin should have logically supported the Clinton campaign up to the hilt, and not the Trump campaign;

Third, when the conspiracy theorists, which includes much of the Fake News Media outlets, emphatically stated that 19 American intelligence/security agencies all claimed that Putins interference/meddling/collusion/conspiracy was real, and that we should take their findings as Gospel, they conveniently fail to remember that those are the very same (19?) American intelligence/security agencies that all claimed that President Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) stockpiled in Iraq back in 2001, which W (AKA President George W. Bush or Bush 43; Remember him?) used to justify launching his attack upon Hussein in the second Persian Gulf War., all the while those same conspiracy theorists emphatically complained that those findings were bogus, and that those agencies were not to be believed! (Hey, now I am just a dumb old ex-GI, and I need a little help here. If you could not believe in the American Intel Community then, then why should you have to believe in them now?! But, then, I digress!)

And there is actually a fourth reason to finally dismiss the Russian collusion charge following the 2016 elections, although it would not be made known until after the 2018 elections. Where is there any evidence of Russian collusion activities attempting to influence those votes? There isnt any? Why not? Is it because the Democrats fared marginally better in the results than the Republicans did this time? Was Putin working against Trump, and helping out his opponents, this go-round?

Huh! Huh! Come on you pompous politicos and pundits: Adam Schiff, Maxine Watters, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Polosi, CNN, and MSNBC (and hundreds of other smug/condescending politicos and pundits)! Has Putin suddenly turned into Mr. Nice-guy after having been Mr. Evil for these past three years? Give me a break! Just how stupid do you think ordinary Americans are, anyway? (OK, OK, I get it; we were stupid enough to have elected you as our countrys leaders in the first place! So, what of it?)