::Friday, May 31, 2002::

BRINKMANSHIP - After 57 years it seems the world may finally arrive at a nuclear war. It's strange, almost ironic that it's not the United States and the USSR but India and Pakistan. Come to think of it the whole situation seems off. Here we are 10 years after the Cold War is over and we are living in the most dangerous days since WWII. We have terrorist threats every few days and two of the world's largest countries stand on the brink of nuclear war. And as we all learned in science class nuclear weapons don't affect just the participants but the entire globe.

Now the India/Pakistan conflict is nothing new. Few people probably even realize this but these two nations have been at war with each other three times since 1947. Of course the difference now is that they posses nuclear arms. However the similarity between this current conflict and our American Civil War strikes me.

The conflict in India revolves around the area of Kashmir in northwest India. The area is overwhelming Muslim, the same as it's neighboring Pakistan. India is mostly Hindu. The people of Kashmir want to belong to Pakistan. Pakistan wants Kashmir to belong to it. India rejects this idea because of the economic benefit of having Kashmir as part of its republic. Sound familiar? It should to students of the American Civil War and it's conflict between the rebel South and the economically powerful North.

The question that must be settled is one of whether or not the people of Kashmir have a right to break away from India. The United Nations Security Council has thrice approved resolutions demanding plebiscites. India rejects this resolutions stating that the 1947 partition of the British India granted Kashmir to them. There is no doubt that if a vote was to occur the people of Kashmir would secede. The fear in India, as it was for the Union in 1861, is the precedent Kashmir would set. What is to stop other areas of India from deciding on an up and down vote to leave the republic? (This is the great fear of all nation states.) Additionally the loss of such an economically rich area would result in a great downturn for the India economy.

Unfortunately in this case there is no great albatross of slavery to distinguish the sides as good or evil. Either an 11th hour miracle will occur or we will have two great and powerful nations on the brink of the greatest fear of the 20th century.
:: Posted by Citizen Ryan | 11:57:05 AM| Link This ::

WHAT RYAN'S READING -

Hitler's Willing Executioners : Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen - In a work that is as authoritative as it is explosive, Goldhagen forces us to revisit and reconsider our understanding of the Holocaust and its perpetrators, demanding a fundamental revision in our thinking of the years between 1933-1945. Drawing principally on materials either unexplored or neglected by previous scholars, Goldhagen marshals new, disquieting primary evidence that explains why, when Hitler conceived of the "final solution" he was able to enlist vast numbers of willing Germans to carry it out. A book sure to provoke new discussion and intense debate. In today's current climate this book is especially useful in understanding anit-semitism and the centuries old hatred of the Jewish race.

Shadow Warriors: Inside the Special Forces by Tom Clancy and Carl Stiner - Shadow Warriors is the third of Tom Clancy's commander books, and this time around Clancy teams up with General Carl Stiner, retired, to recount the recent history of U.S. Special Forces. Clancy notes that while Special Forces played important roles in World War II and Vietnam, the U.S. military has always been uncomfortable with "elites" and their unconventional methods and thus tended to view them primarily as a "sideshow." However, in 1980 when 53 Americans became hostages in Tehran, it became painfully clear that the conventional military tactics of the day, aimed at countering the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, simply could not deal with this new kind of threat. Most of the book revolves around Stiner's military career: its beginning in the late '50s, his tour in Vietnam as a Green Beret, various assignments in the Middle East, and his final stint as commander of SOCOM (U.S. Special Operations Command). Particularly interesting are Stiner's firsthand accounts of the Achille Lauro hostage rescue, the invasion of Panama, and operations in Desert Storm. Clancy fills in and adds context to Stiner's career and to the Special Forces themselves, including short stories of the Jedburgh teams in World War II and the formation of the Green Berets in the early '60s. Though at times disjointed, the result is a fascinating and timely glimpse into the evolution of U.S. Special Forces.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers By J.R.R. Tolkein - I might have read it three times already but I recently started to reread it again after seeing the first movie version of the trilogy. The second movie looks to be much more exicting and action packed then the first. There is one fantastic battle between the armies of Rohan and the orces that takes place a Helm's Depth and will be an absolute wonder to watch on the big screen.
:: Posted by Citizen Ryan | 11:01:59 PM| Link This ::

ISRAEL'S COLUMBINE - If this happened in the United States all hell would break loose. Al Gore and Hillary Clinton would be on TV talking about how guns are the spawn of Satan. Oprah and Larry King would feature psychologists telling us how someone can doing something to children. Dick Army would attack Hollywood and voilent video games for promoting the kind of voilence that lead to a slaughter at school. Every parent would hug their child a bit harder when sending them to school the next day.

But when it happens in Israel? Just another Tuesday and the world doesn't care.
:: Posted by Citizen Ryan | 10:20:27 PM| Link This ::

STICKING IT TO BUD - This has to be one of the best ideas I've seen to deal with the contradiction issue in baseball. The site advocates the election of all Expos and Twins to the MLB All-Star Game. This is a wonderfully grand idea. I've already sumbitted my All-Star ballot once to MLB, but thankfully (or regretfully on their part) MLB lets you vote up to 25 times. My next 24 ballots will certainly include the likes of Lee Stevens, Jacque Jones and Jose Vidro. Just like a referendum is placed to the people, MLB has placed in our hands, the fans, the ability to declare we do not want the Expos and Twins to go. Let us use it.

Now if only we could have a ballot for the election of Bud Selig. I wish!
:: Posted by Citizen Ryan | 8:26:53 AM| Link This ::

GRADUATION AT CORNELL - There aren't many more cynical or jaded Ithaca conservatives then Joseph Sabia. Now don't get me wrong, the guy is a heck of a writer, it's just that reading him tends to get me greatly depressed. In his most recent offering, he lampoons the recent graduation or more specially the graduation students and the system that supports them at Cornell. Sabia is very right about the dumbing down of standards at Cornell and academia across the country. The sad fact is that this has become such an accepted truth that it has become a cliché that no one cares about anymore. The amount of intellectual honesty and courage it takes for someone or some group to say, "Give us harder studies, rather then easy ones," is not a trait inherit in humans. Especially now in the age of fifteen minutes of fame, of entertainment on demand and radical egoism it's nearly unthinkable that people would stop and ask for a harder, more worthwhile path. The idea of such has moved out of the psychology of most Americans.

On this Memorial Day I consider the fact that we are not the WWII generation that fought for freedom in Europe, we are not the Civil War generation that fought to see other men set free and we are certainly not a generation that of patience and intelligence. You mention to a youth of fifty years ago that he has graduated form college because of inferior standards and he will laugh at your ignorance. Mention to a student of today the same thing and he will laugh at you with prideful acceptance.
:: Posted by Citizen Ryan | 7:17:55 AM| Link This ::

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