Millard grimes: Past year's hopeful signs

A year passes, the calendar changes. Does it have significance? Actually it does. A year is calculated to be the number of days it takes for the planet Earth to orbit around the sun, so that on Jan. 1 of each year, Earth is approximately where it was on Jan 1 of the previous year, having completed a 584 million-mile journey around the Sun. So a new journey begins for the planet; the years really do signify something.

Looking back on the past year produces lists of what were its big events, its outstanding people, its meaning for the future.

The threat of terrorism seemed the popular choice for the face of 2015 and certainly that was the focus of the news media, especially the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. Their symbolism is unsettling because they demonstrated that wherever you may be, a Christmas luncheon, a band concert, a street café, the terrorists can strike you.

But a sense of proportion is needed. Today and in the past, a bomb from planes flying far above can suddenly explode in your midst, with death and destruction far more extensive than a terrorist can cause. One bomb can kill more people than those killed in the terror attacks in the U.S. last year, and wider bombing can kill as many as died from the attacks in France. The public impact is not the same, of course, but the loss of life for those below the planes is just as devastating.

Most of the deaths and destruction have been in the countries we call the Middle East, which has been a place of fear, destruction and death for too long, and a place where the sources of hatred and warfare have roots nurtured for centuries, and not easily extracted.

The most significant event of 2015 to this writer was the agreement, after great effort in Vienna back in June among seven major nations, that promises long-term peace in the area where the earliest battles of history are described in the Old Testament.

Fighting in Syria, Iraq, and parts of Turkey has continued but a possible path to peace was agreed on in Vienna, which among other benefits can bring a sure, more durable peace for Israel, which opposed the agreement and in doing so caused many Americans also to oppose it.

Israel is a tiny nation geographically but in the years since its founding in 1948, Israel has become the strongest economic power in the Middle East, despite its small area and population of barely 7 million, counting both Israeli and Arab inhabitants.

The thorn in its flesh that keeps Israel from becoming an even stronger nation is its insecurity. It is surrounded by Arab nations which do not even recognize its existence as a nation, and periodically launch attacks across its narrow borders.

The Vienna Accords dealt in large part with limiting Iran's development of nuclear weapons, and surely that possibility was made more difficult and delayed by at least 15 years. But Iran and the other Arab nations know that Israel already has nuclear weapons, and their number is secret even to the United States, Israel's faithful and essential ally.

The Accords most importantly bring Iran out of its isolation and into the circle of nations which generally try to maintain peace among smaller nations. That was the crucial achievement because it added an ally in the battle against ISIL and other terrorist elements ravaging the Middle East. Iran has been accused of abetting terrorists in the past, but that will be more difficult if it is working in cooperation with the U.S., Great Britain, France and Russia, Spain, Germany Turkey and the European Community, all of which are signatories to the Vienna Accords. All are pledged to remove trade sanctions on Iran, which will benefit all the nations economically and help their populations enjoy more first-world comforts and benefits.

When you fill up your gas tank this week with $1.60 a gallon gasoline, you are already benefiting from the Vienna Accords even before the trade sanctions are removed from Iran.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry deserves much credit for his role in keeping the negotiations going in the face of opposition in the U.S., Israel and from Iran's more militant mullahs. He persevered for months even after breaking his leg during the hardest days. At the same time, he was negotiating a new path to cooperation with Cuba after more than 50 years of discord. The people of both nations have always felt a kinship. One of the Confederacy's goals in the 1860s was to add Cuba as a state.

Kerry, the losing Democratic candidate for president in 2004, has been second in influence only to President Obama during his tenure as secretary of state.

Then in the closing Days of 2015, another event gave hope for the coming year. The Iraqi army, which has been feeble in its battles with ISIL rebels, recaptured the city of Ramadi which ISIL had seized last May in one of its major conquests. The details are still emerging, but if Iraq's government is back in control of Ramadi, this should provide the confidence and military advantage that will be give Iraq a chance to recapture the territory lost to ISIL.

The terrorists have no country of their own and depend on their tenuous control of parts of Iraq and Syria. The next setback for ISIL should be in Syria, followed by its collapse in Iraq.

These are some of the legacies of 2015, not a great journey around the sun, but not all that bad.

Millard Grimes, editor of the Columbus Enquirer from 1961-69 and founder of the Phenix Citizen. is author of "The Last Linotype: The Story of Georgia and Its Newspapers Since World War II."

This story was originally published January 4, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Millard grimes: Past year's hopeful signs ."