Where to Look

The Boston bombers are from the Republic of Dagestan, a republic of Russia, which has been a scene of low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism since the 1990s. That is the environment the bombers came from. This does not justify what they did but it might help us understand where to look for future threats.

 

The area known as the Tigris-Euphrates Basin is losing water faster than any other place in the world except for northern India. From 2003 through 2009 an amount equal to the contents of the Dead Sea has disappeared.

 

As water levels drop tensions rise. In Iraq, the absence of a strong government, drought and shrinking aquifers have led to a number of assassinations of irrigation department officials and a re-emergence of clashes among clans which, are feared, could escalate into full scale armed conflicts.

 

In Syria, drought beginning in 2006 forced many farmers to leave their farms and migrate to urban centers.  Some political pundits believe the migration instigated the civil war. With the migration resulting in angry, unemployed men helped trigger a revolution in which 80,000 people have died.

 

Since 1975, Turkey's dam and hydropower construction has reduced water flow to Iraq by 80 percent and to Syria by 40 percent.

 

Wars over water may replace wars over oil.

 

The United States may have to become more sensitive to problems in other countries that are taken for granted within our borders, at least for now.