Republican leaders say they want to avoid any such cataclysms, but are also insisting on cuts.

ECONOMIST: Bickering and stalemate loom for America��s new Congress

For all these reasons, Europe may soon be in for another of the horrific cataclysms that have plagued it for nearly all of recorded history.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Farewell to 'Europe'?

Hard experience suggests that such an international environment would be prone to renewed cataclysms of the kind that afflicted the planet twice in the last century, at the cost of tens of millions of lives.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The President's new clothes