A Dire, But Not Entirely Wrong, Prediction

Folks, I want you to take a bit of time and go over to the website of sci-fi author Dan Simmons, and read something - I'll even be so kind as to provide you a direct (for the time being) link to what I want you to read: http://www.dansimmons.com/news/message.htm

I would, as is my usual fashion, post the text here but it is both long and I want you to actually leave this page, go to another and be in the spirit of doing that because this is not a casual piece of reading I'm asking of you - I'd ask you to do as the Traveler in Mr. Simmons message suggests and Google some of the words and names mentioned as you read.

Do I agree entirely with the predictions of Mr. Simmons? No. I do not. But, I agree with many of them or at least see the potential for them happening. It is a worthwhile read simply as a warning that if not this then something like it.

There are millions of, if not a billion or so, people in this world who would like these days to be the last days of light. The last days of science, education, free thought, freedom itself. They are not a silent faction either, they have taken up arms and we are fighting them now.
There are others who have no dog in the ideological aspects of that fight, but can only see a lot of money to be made off it.
Unfortunately, we are not fighting the enemies of light very well. We are looking to profiteers to lead us, and they are too busy trying to protect the feelings of the sensitive lest they upset the cash flow to actually wage a war.
War is a ruthless business and we have lost our ruthlessness for a feigned moral superiority. It is, in fact, only the ethics and morals of the leaders that are ruthless - their strategy and their tactics are not and their mindset, for all its ruthlessness, is purely self-serving.
It's total war, or a very long war. No foundation unshaken, no field left un-burned, no shrine un-desecrated. We must make the region ours, isolate the enemy on his own ground at every turn, and we must make the people subject to us or we will never be able to give them stability, and without stability they will never have democracy.
We have not given stability to Iraq - We are letting them run far too much of the show before they are ready, before the bad seeds are weeded out and the corruption burned out, before the squabbling factions are driven together into the dust and beaten together so that when they stand up the dust and blood have rubbed out the lines between Sunni and Shia - And because of that the in-fighting, the insurgency, is stronger than ever and the entire region is less stable than it ever was when Sodamn Insane was in power. And unless we change that, while we still can, it will be our doing that we're embroiled in that bullshit for many many years to come.
I'm not saying we destroy their country, or kill all the people, please do not misunderstand - Women, children, who are non-combatants, should have every measure possible taken to spare and protect them. Nonetheless, no quarter should be given to any and all combatants, and their resources and supply chains should be destroyed. Their stomachs should be empty, their wells dry, their streets unsafe for them, the beds of their wives death traps - Starve them, thirst them, isolate them and when they are weak, hungry, and out of places to run we run them down and kill them.
Then, and only then, should we start rebuilding, start trying to build and train their police, their army, holding elections. Anything we do before then is a farce, a cruel joke on the people of the region and a blessing to our enemy. We are only making them stronger.
Total war - At this point there is no other answer.

We are rapidly approaching a shift - The shift cannot be avoided, they happen throughout human history and even before it, but we can determine who has the role of actor, and who is forced to react, we can take and hold positions of strength. We can choose to bring the light with us through the period of darkness - Or we can choose to loose it and have to learn what it is again, someday, generations down the line.
We need leaders who are committed to preserving the light, enlightenment of science, medicine, education, freedom - Not leaders committed to the almighty dollar and corporate power. We need strategy and tactics, we need warriors, that are committed to this and are capable of doing what is necessary to drive the forward progression of ignorance and destruction. Unless we can find that, we're fucked. And we certainly aren’t going to find it blindly marching down the path we're on after the fools currently leading us.