Uncertainty

VIRTUAL REALITY

- TONY LOPEZ

The Philippines and the world are in the grip of uncertainty not felt in the last half century. Major wars have erupted or will yet erupt.

The escalated Ukraine-Russia war, began Feb. 24, 2022, is now on its third year. It is the largest and deadliest ground war since World War II, with half a million Russian soldiers and 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers, as casualties, per Donald Trump's estimates. The Israel-Hamas war, began Oct. 7, 2023, has not seen the worst of it and instead engulfed the entire Middle East.

Tension is rising in the West Philippine Sea as China intensifies its island-grabbing spree and deploys more fully armed ships in the 3.5 million sq kms of the world's most strategic waters today.

Fear is growing that China will finally make good its plan to invade Taiwan and teach its long-claimed province a lesson on who is boss and owner, earlier than the planned 2027 target launch. An invasion could finally trigger a nuclear war in true MAD fashion. MAD means mutually assured destruction, the doctrine that assumes a nuke war won't happen because it has no winners, just losers.

Today, madmen are ascendant in major countries and they rule with overwhelming mandates. In 2024, 80 countries, half of the world's population, held an election, from America to Russia to Venezuela, down to Indonesia, Pakistan and India. And the winners were, to say the least, problematic.

The Economist magazine doubts the possibility of China invading Taiwan, citing persistent corruption in the People's Liberation Army. Corruption, however, never stops war. Proof is the Ukraine-Russia war, participated in by two of the world's most corrupt armies.