History of fighting for resources

By David Baker, Las Vegas

Thursday, March 6, 2014 | 2:01 a.m.

The war on terrorism didn’t begin on 9/11. It really began in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople (which became modern-day Istanbul). This conquest by the Ottoman Empire and its extortion for ever-increasing money from Western Europe to obtain the spices needed for the preservation of food from Asia seeded the idea in the minds of the European leaders that they must seek a solution to dealing with the barbarians. This led to Queen Isabella financing Christopher Columbus’ voyages.

The result was Western Europe expanding into America instead of discovering the trade route to Asia. It did provide a 500-year suspension from all-out war between Eastern civilization versus Western civilization. Of course, there were battles up until the past century when the Industrial Age changed the commodity the leaders of these two civilizations were fighting over.

In 1453, spices were the most valued commodity on Earth; in 2014, energy is the most valued commodity. Presently, energy is in greatest supply in the form of oil and the related products derived from it.

We have built the entire infrastructure of our modern world upon this and it has produced great wealth and strength — but the flip side of that coin is that it is also our Achilles’ heel.

We now wage war over this commodity, not just against Eastern civilization but politically against ourselves with the environmental movement in the United States.

I believe America will ultimately prevail in this modern commodity war for energy, but the extremes of political parties won’t get us there.

We need to seek candidates for office who will find a balance between scientifically proven green alternatives and the existing fossil fuels we currently use.

This will position America to prosper and to avoid unnecessary military conflicts for now, and in 500 years we will find a new commodity to fight over.

It won’t be spices, it won’t be oil, but surely we will find another reason to fight; it is our nature.

But what do you say that just for now we knock it off with the schoolyard BS and give ourselves a chance at taking civilization to the next level?