Historical Factors

Do you notice the underlying symbolism of America's potential military action against Venezuela? 

The previous Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, visited Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, some time before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Like Iraq, Venezuela is a major exporter of oil. Now Venezuela has a president, Nicolas Maduro, that looks like Saddam Hussein and Donald Trump is suggesting that he step down in order to avoid military action, in the same way that George W. Bush suggested to Saddam Hussein. But now the issue is boats carrying illegal drugs from Venezuela, instead of Saddam Hussein's fabled "weapons of mass destruction".

I have written here before how important physical resemblance can be in history and politics. Archbishop Desmond Tutu bore a strong resemblance to Mahatma Gandhi, who spent a lot of time in South Africa, even though Archbishop Tutu was black and Gandhi was Indian. Silvio Berlusconi resembled Benito Mussolini. The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, resembles the Soviet-era Foreign Minister, Andrei Gromyko. Boris Johnson, with his posture, looks like he could be Winston Churchill's grandson.

Anniversaries are certainly a factor. The end of Communism in Eastern Europe, in one country after another, took place in 1989, and that was the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, which opened the modern political era. The racial uprising in Watts, part of Los Angeles, took place in 1965, which was the hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. 

Under certain circumstances, there can be a delay of twenty years in the anniversary. A series of revolutions swept Europe in 1848. A revolutionary year, of student uprisings, was 1968, particularly in the U.S., Mexico and, France. There was a twenty year delay from the hundredth anniversary that was caused by the world wars. Another place that we see the "Twenty-Year Delay" is in the Arab Spring. It was similar to the end of Communism in Eastern Europe, in one country after another, but it began in 2009.

Location can certainly be a factor. Why was Islamic State, IS, so barbaric? Could it be that it was proclaimed in Mosul, which had once been Nineveh that was the capital of the Assyrians?

Name can always be a factor. A persistent enemy of Israel in ancient times was the Philistines. Now Israel has conflict with the Palestinians in Gaza. Palestine is named for the Philistines and Gaza was one of their five cities. I think that the Philistines were five independent city-states that cooperated, and didn't really have political unity. Israel has also had conflict with Syria, which was named for the Assyrian Empire which took away the "Ten Lost Tribes" of Israel.