The future of the world?

This weekend I am researching my next special article which I hope to finish sometime next week for coffee buyers. Ummm… a special article on the future of the world????

At the same time, I'm writing “thank you” messages to everyone who bought me a coffee for the last article – a task something I really enjoy – because I get a chance to interact personally. Sometimes I get a little carried away and ramble in my messages.... Sorry...

On the other hand, many in the NewsForensics Coffee Klatch make insightful comments that cause me to think about a lot of things. And I get a lot of really useful information as well.

This next article tries to put together the rise of China and Russia and the demise of the West. This kind of civilizational shift has happened only rarely in history so perhaps we are fortunate to be alive this time. Of course, we don't know how much longer we will be alive, given the way things are going!

One might say that has never happened on the same scale as it is happening today. When Rome fell, it really only affected Europe. When the Mayan Empire fell, there was just Central America. If the American empire collapses, will it affect the entire world – all the continents? We were educated to believe that the US is the keystone of civilized life on this earth and without it we will revert to barbarism.

On the other hand, others say that the world as a whole is changing and developing– globally-- and the US is rooted in the past. It cannot keep up. In the end, the collapse of the American Empire maybe be more the hiccup than a Big Bang.

How to explain how and why all this is happening? Should I even try? I think I should at least give it a go. Maybe I will just let Ichi write it.

Proxy wars

On a different subject…all of a sudden, the Houthis and Hezbollah are using advanced missiles. As I suggested in a post quite a while back the Iranians have been supplying both the Houthis' and Hezbollah with weaponry--not the most advanced, but serviceable kit they can handle.

I predicted that as the Americans and the Israelis remained intransigent, the Iranians would up their game—and you would see more advanced weapons being used.

So no there is much talk of the Houthis using hypersonic missiles.

Of course, all ballistic missiles are necessarily hypersonic. When we talk about hypersonic weapons like Zircon and the Dagger, we are talking about maneuverable hypersonic weapons with precision targeting. The Iranians appear to have rudimentary capability in this area.

Recently the Houthis' published a photo of a missile launch

Notice the little fins on the warhead which detaches from its booster near the target. Are these just stabilizers or do they somehow function to provide a measure of maneuverability. If it is the latter, the Israelis will have to volley fire Arrow interceptors to take down a single ,missile before its warhead can detach. Each missile costs $3 million.

But the Houthis’ solid fuel rockets are a lot cheaper.

Coffee

As usual, if you if you're interested in next special article please buy me (us) a coffee!

Still searching for Ichi’s kitten.