The U.S. must either help engineer the
overthrow of the mullahs — a tough task this late in the day — or
America or Israel will be faced with bombing Iran's nuclear facilities.
Sweeping Iran under the rug could prove the greatest geopolitical
blunder since Neville
Chamberlain's 1938 Munich Agreement with Hitler.
2. Global Warming 'Consensus' Fades
The fissures started to show in 2007:
Prominent French physicist Claude Allegre called Gore a crook and
equates Gore's French followers with religious zealots. Weather Channel
founder and meteorologist John Coleman said global warming is "the
greatest scam in history." Gore continued to duck open invitations to
debate his theory. More than 400 scientists disputed the global warming
claims.
3. Cuba Sails Into Rough Waters
With Raul vowing to maintain the status
quo, many Cubans are despairing. Cuban refugee numbers fleeing to
Florida and Mexico are up 30% this year, a sign of trouble. The Coast
Guard apprehended 3,200 in 2007 alone. In the absence of any desirable
future under Raul, turmoil in Cuba is likely, and the U.S. could feel
it, too.
4. Chavez Wears Thinner
Don't expect Chavez to tone it down,
however. As his social programs fail, look for aggressive distractions.
He will focus on larding up his military to head off discontent growing
in the ranks. He will continue to pick fights with neighbors such as
Colombia and look for ways to blast the U.S.
5. The Cold War Returns
The last point is key. Thanks mainly to
high energy prices, Russia's economy has grown at a healthy 6% to 7%.
Putin now has some $350 billion to bankroll neo-imperialist ambitions
and military expansion — including a new generation of intercontinental
ballistic missiles. That means more headaches, not fewer, from our
former friends in 2008.
6. The Economy Again, Stupid
It's not so much that the economy should
be the top issue in 2008. It's that the success of the U.S. surge has
taken what has long been the top issue — Iraq — away from the
Democrats. So now they're turning back to one that served them well the
last time a Clinton tried to replace a Bush.
7. Bush Reassessment Begins
If the economy does skirt recession and
strengthens in the second half, expect a grudging, Trumanesque
reappraisal of the Bush presidency. But as with the erosion of the
global-warming consensus, it'll probably take years for an objective
verdict on Bush to come in.
8. Stem Cell Researchers Win Nobel
Researchers in Japan and the U.S. in 2007
announced they had found a way to turn regular human skin cells into
the equivalent of embryonic stem cells. By activating a handful of
dormant genes, teams led by Dr. Shinya Yamanaka at Japan's Kyoto
University and Dr. James Thompson at the University of Wisconsin were
able to coax the cells back in time to a point in embryonic development
before they'd committed to becoming a particular type of tissue.