I ran across an article today about using water as a weapon of war, actually a couple weeks past and the irony for me is WF and I were in Arkansas looking at property. Arkansas in of itself has a pretty large supply of water, lakes, streams, rivers etc. There are a number of large springs that belch millions of gallons an hour in some parts of the state and truly phenomenal to see. The clarity of the water in some of the lakes are crazy. Seriously, Walleye spear fishing!.
I had proposed a question to WF one evening after chow and we were sitting around going over some of the MLS sheets., (logistically and materially aside) what if a water poor state such as California or Texas came into Arkansas and rightly or wrongly, hook or crook started to claim Arkansas’ surface water? Claim the rain water? and then pump it westward?
Totally out of the realm of reason? Crazy you say?
The first article I ran across was this over at the Captain’s Journal , Using Water As A Weapon Of War . Interesting no? The author sites Syria presently and even (cue music) Toledo Ohio! Not just water but all the things that make us a 1st world country, electricity, sewer infrastructure. When one goes the others are close in order to fail. Everyone loves to site Katrina as an example of a total infrastructure failure. In New Orleans case it was not a lack of water but the opposite. What ever the order of dominoes in the end it will be the same.
Then at lunch I found this article: Army war gamers name top 3 threats facing the military in 2025 and beyond. Some pretty crazy numbers listed in there. 60% or the population in mega cities, crime, gangs, a total Judge Dredd world less Sylvester Stallone riding a Harley. The companion article Pentagons top three threats in the next 30 years goes into more detail.
I try pretty hard to keep things in perspective and not conspire about what “ifs” and tin foil hat crap. I have a helluva time just thinking about how to shuffle money around to pay off bills than to sit and think of a Judge Dredd world coming down the pike.
But one does have to ponder and only slightly peel the first few layers off the onion of human history to not wonder if it is possible again.
In my reality I am only 2 generations removed from outhouses, a well pump at the back door, cholera, measles, mumps, and the Spanish Flu. It would only take a few years to fall back to those early 20th century problems if the right set of events took hold.
Think Syria and Iraq presently. Only 5 and 10 years respectively to achieve the distinction of a failed state . Each is a total basket case. Somalia? gesh, they are on their second decade of a complete collapse. Funny how they go quicker now?
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