To the editor:

China and India both have common problems, as viewed by the people in power in each nation: massive overpopulation, neverending political threat to the people at the top by unhappy minorities, need to unify the fractious nation, and so on.

Recently in Turkey there was a coup attempt. It failed. But the fact that it happened strengthened the hand of the man at the top in Turkey. Think emergency war powers act. Just 10 years ago, no serious student of contemporary Turkish history could imagine Kamal Ataturk being overshadowed by some political upstart. But here he is.

China and India have both watched what happened in Turkey, but more importantly they took note of our (the West and the United States) response, or lack thereof. As Hitler was emboldened by the West’s zero response to the Armenian genocide to create the Holocaust, I believe the leaders of both India and China also may feel emboldened to create a crisis to unify their nations and cement their hold on power.

In the recent weeks, a pseudo-military incident seems to have popped up like a mushroom in the nexus between China, India and Bhutan. A non-nuclear war between China and India that destroys millions would serve the Machiavellian interests of the leadership in both national giants. Many of the fractious minorities are the same on both sides of the border.

What does this have to do with Saranac Lake? Everything. We in the U.S. import most of our domestically consumed manufactured goods from China. India dominates our information technology sector. There are a quite a few serious, doable scenarios involving Al-Qaeda, ISIS, North Korea, Iran, etc that could pop up as a result of such a limited war and devastate our nation, even though we will almost certainly not be a participant in any conflict between the two giants.

On the day the Treaty of Versailles was signed, few if any could imagine a beaten and handcuffed Germany to become the nightmare it became a few decades later. On Sept. 1, 1939, few if any in the United States would think the actions of Nazi Germany could affect us here. On Dec. 7, 1941, few if any could imagine the battered United States (Pearl Harbor) and Russia (still backpedaling from the Nazi onslaught) would dominate the world for over half a century after World War II.

If my supposition is correct and there is a gentlemen’s agreement to have a limited war between the two for political reasons, then we here in Saranac Lake might very well feel the pain even though it is “Over There,” as the song goes. I hope my concerns are unfounded and the strong personalities at the top smooth things over, as Putin and Erdogan did in the last year.

Ira Weinberg

Saranac Lake