Art La Flamme

I mentioned awhile ago that I had to blog for this course. After some anguish, I ended up writing this — a piece about what I did during the ground war. Really, what we did during the ground war.

I chose that subject ultimately because, after reading everything I could about why they wanted us to blog during this course, I realized that what the Army wanted was a story like this. They think America needs to hear these things. And I think they’re right.

For the folks who are in the year-long version of this course, not only do they have to blog, but they have to do two other things: submit something for publication, and speak to a group (outside the military).

I sent the link for my piece, to the lady here at Ft Gordon why runs the on-post magazine. We went back and forth some on email, and they opted to print it. September has Patriot Day, and it fits well into that theme. I sent along a couple of photos I had with me — to include one with my dad, which I thought was super cool. I also asked for and got her agreement to include the copyright notice – that the piece is protected under the Creative Commons license, and that it was being published with permission. Viva Creative Commons.

When I got back from lunch today, there was a copy of the magazine on my doorstep. Sure enough, page 27 has the article. I think it came out pretty well.

The PDF for the magazine isn’t online yet. I’ll throw up the link when it’s online.

Now, the question is: Who in my school’s administration reads the post magazine? I’m not going to say anything to the school about this being published; I want to wait and see if they notice. If nothing else, I’ll tell them when I’m about to leave.

Yeah, it runs opposite a whole page of awesome ads. Hey, nothing says “Patriotism!” like self-storage, world poker leagues, and real estate agents!

I’m working on a research paper, so I’ll tell you all more about this later. But I’ve added some neat photos up on Flickr. Click here for more.

“You all.” Holy crap. I’ve been in the South tooooo long. I need to get out of here!

I gave an interesting presentation today about Egypt, France, the UK, the US and the Soviets back in ’56.

I posted it here, with included notes. Clicking on the link will show the notes.

Georgia and the separatists in South Ossetia came to blows a couple of days ago, ending the de facto stalemate in the war there. Russia has had “peace keepers” there for some time, and this re-introduction of combat operations has dragged Mother Russia back into the fighting.

Russia and the Republic of Georgia are at war.

I realize that, for most of America, this is not a big deal. For me, this is news, with a capital N.

For Russia, this is a win-win situation.

Russia wins in exerting influence over South Ossetia when it comes at the expense of the Republic of Georgia. Russia comes out on top be re-exerting its control over what had been Soviet territories, and what is now territory in a pro-Western, US-leaning country like Georgia.

Russia wins because they can use this as justification for rolling in massive amounts of troops. and not just into South Ossetia, but also in Abkhazia, another break-away region in Georgia.

They win, because they might be able to influence the oil coming out of Azerbaijan en route to Turkey or the oil ports on the Georgia’s Black Sea ports, by right or by might.

And what can Georgia do? Call for US assistance? US troops? Repel the Russians themselves?

They’re going to bleed. They’re going to take as much of a beating as the Russians choose to give them. And there’s not a damn thing else they can do.

The Russians in South Ossetia win. More support, more autonomy, more business with Russia will only improve their lives. They aren’t viable as a state, but they can gain here with some more autonomy and more support from Mother Russia.

And Abkhazia will gain, the same way.

Russia wins. South Ossetia wins. Abkhazia wins.

Georgia loses. America is going to lose. And other western countries will lose, if the oil flow is disrupted or the price goes up.

This, by the way, is worth watching.