The War on ... Everything

A nation is logically only able to declare war on another nation, not on an idea.

Nation versus nation: that's fair. Nation versus idea: that's absurd. It's like asking: "how heavy is a second"?

In war there is a victor and the defeated, the war ends, and to the victor go the spoils. When a nation wars with an idea, the war never ends. The War on Poverty is forty-eight years old! How's that workin' out fer ya? The War on Drugs - under many names - has been going on for a hundred years in one form or another, and by that name in particular for four decades. At what point does an idea win or concede defeat?

The War on Poverty, the War on Illiteracy, the War on Drugs, the War on Terror, the War on Gender Inequality, the War on Racism, the War on War. Who benefits?

Cyprus

The European Union is imploding, falling under the weight of debt. Portugal, Italy, Greece, Ireland, Spain: all need to be bailed out, because they've borrowed too much money and can't afford to make interest payments. Now Cyprus needs to be bailed out, to the tune of 17 billion Euros, equivalent to the entire yearly Cypriot economy. They are frantically trying to prevent a run on their banks, and just passed three laws that basically hand over banking to Greece (!). This is all in the hopes of getting a bailout on better terms than were offered by the European Central Bank, which would have stolen money from anyone with savings in the banks. A lot of those with savings in Cypriot banks aren't Cypriots; there's lots of Russian Mafia money squirreled away there.

You do not steal from the Russian Mafia. Henry Hill can explain what happens next: