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After ... What Next?
NMB, Florida October 13, 2001 A.H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.
AFTER.. WHAT NEXT?
Future casting in a Time of Trouble
Looking ahead as you drive down highways is always a good idea. You need
to find out what is ahead of you to avoid trouble and prepare for it. I
remember that patch of black ice that caused my car to swivel around like a
carousel but was lucky there was no other traffic at that time of day. Some
things are not so easy to see - like the future. After Afghanistan is
reduced to dust like the Twin Towers, what must next be done?
This is very much like the questions asked after the American entry into
war following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the later declaration of war
against the Axis Powers - particularly that part led by Hitler. One of the
ideas floated around that never got more than a mention was to reduce
Germany to a primitive agricultural nation so their powerful industrial
complex could never rise again. The fear was so great that a nation central
to war in two world wars if left free would try for three.
Future casting or trying to predict the future is faultless and futile.
You can make as many predictions as you want and the future will still
surprise you. The "Buck Rodgers" future cities in the cartoon creation
showing cities of fantastic size with roadways in the middle of tall
buildings and sky-cars flitting by at all levels never appeared - but they
caused some serious thinking. We now have one of the inventions of the
creator of Buck who fell asleep in the 20th Century and woke 500 years in
the future. The cartoonist drew pictures of a machine that could prepare,
smooth out and lay road materials all in one. We have that now if you have
ever seen that road-wide apparatus at work. We even have a form of
rocket-belt attachments that a "soldier" can use to jump around
battlefields. Buck Rodgers and Wilma Deering used them and caught our
imagination.
What will Afghanistan and the world be like without the Al Qaeda and the
Taliban? Will the Afghanistan will or the Western will prevail in making
this dusty country - into what?
Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.
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