Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. 

Protests during the annual meeting of world leaders is nothing new, but this year it was an all-out war attempting to disrupt the proceedings.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made a fool of himself by flying to Hamburg and joining the G20 Summit protests that had a strangle hold on Hamburg. An estimated 50,000 to 100,000 protesters rioted, looted stores and burned property including many vehicles on the streets of Hamburg injuring more than 200 police officers during the 3-day siege, according to news reports. About 200 protesters were arrested; no deaths were reported.

Mayor de Blasio gave two speeches proclaiming solidarity with the protesters who in part were also resisting the recent decision by President Donald Trump to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord. This far-left-wing mayor has been harshly criticized not only for joining the protesters, but right on the heels of another police officer assassination on the streets of New York City – a mother to three young children. Her funeral is set for Tuesday.

Protesters surrounded the G20 Summit location in Hamburg and tried to penetrate the wall of 20,000 armed police officers — in full-riot gear — with tank-like water cannons protecting the perimeter. The intense security was set up around the site to protect the leaders of the most populous nations on Earth with the largest economies including the USA, China, Japan, South Korea, India and Russia. And Mayor de Blasio participates in this “anti-capitalist” madness?

President Trump first stopped in neighboring Poland on Thursday where he was greeted in Warsaw by 100,000 Poles who listened and cheered as he gave a rousing speech that was broadcast live on Polish TV and around the world. There were no protests of President Trump’s visit.

In 1945 Poland was torn apart following the end of World War II with fallen Nazi Germany on one side and Stalin’s communist-Leninist Russia on the other — lessons were learned and followed. Present day Poland is highly conservative with immigration policies so strict they have yet to experience a terrorist attack in their country. Imagine that. No terror attacks. No deaths.

Poland and nearby Hungary are two of the most restrictive countries in Europe when it comes to accepting Muslim migrants – and neither have seen a major terror attack in years – so unlike the numerous radical Islamic terrorist attacks that plague the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium and Italy who all have open borders.

All in all the G20 Summit went well on the inside. President Trump held one-on-one meetings with the leaders of Russia, China, South Korea and Japan focusing on the mounting problems of Syria, and rogue North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

You’d be hard pressed to remember anything that ever happened at a G20 meeting — whose mission is to provide a forum for world leaders to get together and discuss policy issues regarding the promotion of international financial stability and national security. These annual events have taken place for the past 13 years at different locations around the world. The next G20 meeting is set for 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The escalating situations in Syria and North Korea demand immediate attention without any more hesitation. It’s time for Syrian oppression of their people to end and for the Assad regime to be gone. It’s also time for North Korea dictator Kin Jung Un’s government to be replaced. The USA, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan have vested interests to bring down these two governments, but Russia backs Syria’s Assad and China appears to be doing nothing to stop neighboring North Korea’s ongoing development of nukes threatening the northern Pacific Ocean basin above the equator.

These two major conflicts have been going on for decades with past U.S. presidents and other world leaders doing little or nothing to bring any resolution, but President Trump says he means business in stopping North Korea “one way or another” and resolving the plight of Syria — long overrun by extremists and embroiled in civil war.

It’s doubtful events in Syria and North Korea will lead to World War III — but if they do – as theoretical German physicist Albert Einstein once said – “World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”