And the buzzword of the day is… broader war!

Isn’t it incredible how both mainstream media pundits and off-the-cuff pundits can agree on a word or phrase that sums up their utter indifference and ignorance of what’s happening beyond our shores? I mean, is cell phone service down in Washington and New York today? Someone They could have grabbed an old Blazer or Version XIIVVMM thing in their pocket and called… I don’t know… Yemen or Beirut or Kiev and asked them what the sky looks like today. Do you see missile contrails? Have you heard any explosions lately?

My point is, there is already a broader war going on in the Middle East and elsewhere, and it is a bloody war. That largely includes the very broad, bloody, very belligerent war that Ukraine is waging against Russian aggressors who have already taken part of their country and want to take much more.

The Crisis Group, a nonprofit founded with the goal of “preventing war and shaping peace,” has a handy list they call “Ten Conflicts to Watch in 2024,” which includes the usual suspects: Ukraine and Gaza . They also mention what they also call the ‘Wider Middle East war’, Sudan, Ethiopia, the Sahel (mainly Niger), Haiti, Armenia-Azerbaijan and, for good measure, the US and China.

The Geneva Academy, which maintains an extensive list of armed conflicts around the world, totaling 110, counts, believe it or not, “more than 45 armed conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa,” including those in the news. such as Cyprus, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Western Sahara.

In Europe, the Geneva Academy counts seven armed conflicts, including the obvious, Ukraine, but also Moldova, Georgia and Armenia-Azerbaijan.

In Asia, there are 21 ongoing armed conflicts in Afghanistan, India, Myanmar, Pakistan and the Philippines. Two ‘international armed conflicts’ are taking place between China and India, but also between India and Pakistan.

Latin America has only two “armed conflicts” according to the Geneva Academy: armed violence involving criminal organizations and drug cartels in Mexico and Columbia, although I don’t know what they would call what happens every day in the streets of Caracas, Venezuela and elsewhere in that besieged country.

What has caught the attention of the lead writers and bookers of cable news programs is, of course, Israel’s movement of tanks and troops into Lebanon tonight. They can get images of that, although the armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and other radical Muslim groups has been bloody and deadly for decades.

I suppose “broader” may play a role in the buzzword-ville, because what they’re really talking about is the war between Israel and Hezbollah and Gaza spreading further through the Middle East. Although, then again, when Iran recently sent several hundred missiles and armed drones into the skies over Israel, the so-called “wider war” is already here, wouldn’t you think?

Speaking of “broader,” it seems like the United States, which has about a hundred military installations of one kind or another around the world, should be on all lists. After all, the US is currently supplying troops and weapons to multiple countries, including Iraq, Israel, Ukraine, Western Europe, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, the waters of the South China Sea, and we’re not even sure what we are busy in places like Africa, Thailand, Guam and other garden spots around the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

So a broader war? As a character on Saturday Night Live said: Excuuuuse me!

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