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Cyclone Pam tore through the south Pacific island nation of Vanuatu last Friday and Saturday, packing winds of over 300 kph/180 mph. The Category 5 storm created so much damage that rescue crews from Australia and New Zealand are having difficulty reaching victims. “‘We have no contact of any sort with the outer islands, the priority is to get communications up and running. It’s very, very concerning that we haven’t heard anything from the outlying islands,’ Joe Lowry, a spokesman for International Organisation for Migration (ILM), told Reuters in Port Vila.

“The Vatican’s ambassador in Geneva has said the use of force will be necessary to protect minority groups from Islamic State [ISIS] aggression if a political solution cannot be achieved” (Jerusalem Post, March 15, 2015). The ambassador called for a coalition that would do “everything possible to achieve a political settlement without violence… but if that’s not possible, then the use of force will be necessary” (ibid.).​​​

Is history the future? It has been said, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” But in a strange twist of history in our day, the radical Islamists of Islamic State, or ISIS, have learned their history quite well, and they want to repeat it. And they plan to force everyone else to repeat it as well. What history do they want to repeat?

In response to Russia’s stepped-up air reconnaissance flights and active role in the Ukraine, “The United States on Wednesday placed sanctions on eight Ukrainian separatists and a Russian bank, warning that recent attacks by rebels armed by Russia violated a European-brokered ceasefire in the war-torn country” (Reuters, March 11, 2015).

Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, recently stated, “the EU should establish its own army to show Russia it is serious about defending European values.” During an interview with Die Welt am Sonntag, Juncker said, “Europe has lost a huge amount of respect. In foreign policy too, we don’t seem to be taken entirely seriously.