Where I Stand: Giving thanks for what we have; wishing we had more

By Brian Greenspun (contact)

Sunday, Nov. 22, 2015 | 2 a.m.

This week is my favorite time of year: Thanksgiving. Those able to celebrate with their families are the lucky ones, and they know it, because so many others don’t have the luxury of family and good friends.

I was thinking about Thanksgiving the other day while my friend Richard was instructing me on the proper method of working out at this fancy health club I joined. Doctor’s orders! By the way, as far as I am concerned, there is no proper way to work out.

I am certain the blood rushed too fast from my brain because, while lamenting the tragedy in Paris and the seeming impossibility for political consensus in the United States over what we should do, I had a thought.

It seems that so many of our problems are connected to this world’s insatiable appetite for oil, the stuff that runs our economies. There are countries with the oil, which, not surprisingly, are in many cases predominantly Muslim, and those without that precious resource, which, not surprisingly, are not so inclined.

The conflict exists when we try to do business with those folks, most of whom are happy to do so but some of whom don’t want anything to do with us. In fact, a number of them just want to kill us.

This is not just a problem with the West, as witnessed by 9/11 and the recent tragedy in Paris. Major and emerging superpowers such as Russia (the recent bombing of a Russian passenger jet) and China (Muslim unrest in the western territories) can see growing challenges as they become more Westernized and, therefore, at odds with that small, radical part of Islam that decrees death to modernity and the people who yearn for it.

So, I was thinking about the past few centuries and the superpowers that ruled the world. I realize that is why wars are fought, but it is clear that Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal and others traded off every few decades in the centuries leading up to the 20th to see who would be the most powerful. Throw in some hegemonic aspirations of China, a few caliphates and perhaps Japan, and what we see is a long and protracted period in which the title of superpower changed hands multiple times.

For the better part of the 20th century, it was the United States, with a few decades of challenge from the Soviet Union, that ruled the roost of economic, military and political superiority.

But history has taught us that what is today may not necessarily be what is tomorrow. Hence the idea that the three countries that either hold the title of superpower or have the aspiration and the ability to become tomorrow’s superpower should find a way for common cause to guide us through the rest of the 21st century.

If you buy the idea that America may not be the sole superpower tomorrow and that keeping that position will be a constant and expensive challenge, it is not hard to envision a partnership of sorts with those countries that would be king of the hill.

It just so happens that China, Russia and the United States share the same challenge from the forces of evil and the motivation to do something about it. The three countries also share the desire to be the big kid on the block, whether in 10 years or 10 decades. And it appears that we each, along with so many other countries who don’t have our ability to rule the world, want to see good prosper and evil fail.

So, given that there is no certainty that the United States will rule the world throughout the 21st century and beyond but there is a certainty that Russia and China will do their best to supplant us in that quest, why don’t we consider joining forces?

We can create a new paradigm in which the three of us control all of the oil (selling it only to countries that do good and follow a proper plan toward renewable energy). There are many variations of this idea, but the plan would be to take oil out of the geopolitical realm so bad actors can be dispatched without concern for energy-price spikes or scarcities.

You can see what this can become with a little imagination. All we have to do in America is decide to share power — economic and political — with those who would be our enemies.

Nothing makes better friends and allies than common economic and security goals.

It is just a thought, I know, and one perhaps derived from a lack of oxygen, but at this time of Thanksgiving it seems that planning a partnership for peace and prosperity for the rest of this century is a far better and healthier pursuit than the current partnership we must have to rid the world of the scourge Islamic radical terrorism.

Russia would get what it wants — a place at the table of power; China would get what it needs — energy security and a healthier life for its people while sitting at the same table; and the United States would get what it has always wanted — a clearer and saner path to world peace.

Brian Greenspun is owner, publisher and editor of the Sun.