There is a very interesting post on the state of war and violence in the world over at the Strategy Page site (h.t. Bayou Renaissance Man). The whole post was very educational for me because it describes the source of violence in a lot countries around the world with ancillary information you can view by clicking the country name. I cannot speak to what is happening in most of those countries, but the site built a lot of credibility because of their spot-on take on what is going on in Mexico. The drug cartels are a thing, but few understand the interplay between the cartels, a corrupt government culture and local militia that has formed to protect citizenry from the horrible violence. When the Mexican government legitimized those militia due to their success, a very important byproduct was the spotlight that got thrown on the culture of corruption that is winked at and/or perpetrated by the government itself. That section on Mexico is worth the price of admission (free), but the whole article is just stellar.
Tag: war
I am one of those people who has not had to deal with much suffering in this life. Last night we, Lorena, Grandma Sarah, Grandpa Milo and I, were at the home of some old dear friends, Gary and Dru. Grandpa Milo and his generation fought in the Korean War. Gary, just a few years older than I, fought in the Vietnam War. They were both drafted into the army and had no choice about whether or not they would go to war. My generation, on the other hand, never went to war and, arguably, has done more to foul up our country and turn our culture into an entitlement culture than any previous generation.
We talked about this last night. Gary has been reading in the book of Judges in the bible and pointed out something I had never before noticed. Enemies were left in the land to teach war to the children of Israel who had never faced it.
Judges 2:21-Judges 3:2 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died: That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua. Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan; Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof;
We lived just North of Ft. Bragg when we lived in North Carolina and daily rubbed shoulders with many people who had seen war. There is a world of difference between the culture there and the culture in where we find ourselves now in Portland. The only observation I have about this is that for people who have not known or been touched by war, there are many “unknown unknowns” and an unrealistic sense of entitlement that seem to add coarseness to our culture. I count myself among those who have never seen war and want to be wary of thinking I deserve something I do not.
Betty Blonde #301 – 09/11/2009
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Stepan, my Russian, chemist friend and I got into one of those discussions common to rooms full of engineers: the relative benefits of the different ways to go into space. He has a very interesting theory. The mundane part is that it is cheaper to send up rockets than maintain a space shuttle fleet. The really good part is that he is against the private sector getting to deeply into making rockets for space travel.
He says, “Can you imagine, the next thing you know, we will have an atomic exchange between IBM and Cisco!”