It looks like the Soviet Union is back. Not in Communist form, but rather as a quasi-Capitalist bully of nations around it. They are currently invading former Soviet state Georgia under a somewhat false pretense - protecting Russian citizens in two breakaway Georgian provinces. These Russian citizens are actually Georgian citizens who were given Russian citzenship, ostensibly to give the Russians pretext for an attack. With Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili heading the most pro-US government among former Soviet states, it seems like he is being targeted as an example to others to not mess with the Russians.
The way I see it, the US has a couple of options. 1. Jawbone the Russians to death. This is what the US is currently doing, and it's not doing one thing. 2. Help the Georgians. This isn't just giving them daily affirmations, this is actually putting bodies on the ground. We have over 100,000 troops in theater right now, along with USAF squadrons and carrier battle groups. These are assets that we could use to protect Georgia's sovereignty. Of course, they would have to have an extremely limited mandate. We wouldn't want to have A-10 Warthogs attacking troop columns within Russia or else something regional will suddenly turn into World War III. Because of the current position of the front lines though, that shouldn't be an issue. I think I would let the Russians know that if they don't pull back to South Ossetia, Russia, and Abkhazia, we would attack their front lines. Of course, this isn't something that will ever happen because we're not willing to fight Russia to protect Georgia. Sen. McCain said we should at least take Russia out of the G-8 in a symbolic slap in the face. In addition, Sen. Obama called for stopping their entry into the WTO, another good step. I think that's the minimum that we have to do. We could also immediately add Ukraine and Georgia to NATO. That should stop them thanks to NATO's mutual defense pact. That is highly unlikely because it's committing the nations of Europe to a path of possible war with Russia, which would come with some serious complications, but perhaps they don't want to be the 21st Century's Neville Chamberlain.
The other former Soviet nations have another, and far more serious problem. Georgia is the first, and others will follow. Will we see a return to the pre-1991 boundaries of Russia? We'll certainly see those republics fall back under Russian sway, if only in the form of a new Warsaw Pact. If they want to stay independent, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, and the rest should leap to the defense of Georgia by declaring war on Russia. With that many fronts and that much territory to cover, you can believe that the Russian bear would back down. It's easy to pick on a small country in the Caucuses, it's another thing all together to fight a war on multiple fronts covering thousands of miles.
I'll probably post a couple of different times on different aspects of my recent cruise through the Greek Isles and Dalmatian Coast, but I wanted to first talk about what I think is the most outrageous part of the whole trip: driving from Venice to Lake Como. I initially did it because some people in my group wanted to go to Como. It looks stunning, but it's 3 hours away from Venice. I got a 9 passenger van (and it was a bit of a hunk of junk) and went driving. I actually didn't have too much trouble for most of the trip. Italian drivers are infamous for their aggressive, insane driving tactics. For the most part, that didn't play on this trip. Scooter and motorcycle drivers had death wishes, driving in and out of traffic as though they were as visible as the Goodyear blimp. I was shocked I didn't see a few get turned into goo by a Maserati. At any rate, the trip to Como was good, although we didn't end up doing the whole itinerary. It was taking too long to get around the lake, so we decided to deep-six that and go to Milan. I've flown from Malpensa airport and that's the extent of my Milan experience. I had been told that it was mainly an industrial town and there wasn't much to see, but after reading Vince Flynn's book Separation of Power, I decided we should give it a shot and there was more to the city than industry and fashion. A note to those who are thinking about driving in Milan: DON'T DRIVE IN MILAN. If you have a car for some reason, park it by the nearest Metro stop you can find when you get into the city and use the Metro. Borrow a bike, ride the bus, parachute in, or walk if you have to, but under no circumstances should you ever consider driving in that city. You might think you're a good driver. You might even be a good driver. However, Milan is insane. It has streets that make no sense, weaving in and out of buildings - one-way roads that intersect with other one-way roads that send you right back out from where you were going; street signs that are on the sides of buildings, if the building was built in the right historical era; and traffic that makes New York City look downright tame. If I had known what I was in for, I never would have done it. At the same time, if you don't take my advice, I have 4 more words for you: get a good navigator. Think of your car as an F-14 - you're flying at the stick, but you've got to have someone good as your navigator telling you where to go, because you're blowing past streets at such a clip that if they can't stay a few steps ahead of you, you'll end up as the hood ornament on that city bus that is coming your way. My navigator was average (in fact, judging by our trip to Austria and Germany last year, I'd take my wife over him), which is okay in a lot of instances, but not in Milan. The good news is that we made it into the center of the city and back out. The bad news is that it took an average of 45 minutes to get from the Autostrade (their interstates) to the center of town and vice-versa. My wife will disagree with me on whether I got lost or not. I maintain that I didn't, because I got us where we needed to go, and because I was reliant on the navigator.
Here's some of the pictures from our trip, in chronological order: We flew into Vienna via Delta in Atlanta. We got delayed there, although it was bearable as we were in Business Elite instead of coach. If you've not experienced it, save some miles to do so at least once in your life.The Rathaus, ViennaHofburg, Vienna. The tour was distinctive, I'll give it that. I loved the voice of the audio guide, but he was way too long-winded. Schonbrunn Palace, outside Vienna. Same audio guide, much more succinct, much better. The grounds are incredible here. St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna. This was cool, but alas, the main spire was undergoing restorative work. Melk Abbey, Austria. We drove through here on the way to Salzburg and didn't know about it at first. Are we glad we stopped! This was, without question, one of the best cathedrals I've ever been in. It was absolutely incredible and ruined the insides of every other church we went to. Salzburg, Austria. This was quite possibly our favorite place we went to. The city was incredibly compact, we were able to see everything in about a day and walk everywhere, but it had an amazing feel. The Mozart houses were certainly interesting, although one of them just went on forever. The audio tour felt like "we don't have enough interesting information, so here's 20 minutes of Mozart's music while you're standing around." I have an iPod, thank you. Give me the info and be done, not a concert on my little hand held device. The castle was amazing though, very cool stuff.
Salzburg, Germany. Salzburg's claim to fame is The Sound of Music, for some reason or another. I'm not a fan of it, and I'm less so after seeing a little YouTube clip of the "Do, a deer..." song. My wife's mom had them reenact that song when she was young and they were there, and we did it again, far less seriously. Here I am as Julie Andrews. Obersalzburg, Germany. This here is Eagles' Nest, the famed gift for Hitler that got turned into a restaurant. Obersalzburg, Germany again. This is part of the miles of bunkers that run underneath the Alps here. They built them to withstand heavy bombing as well as an all-out frontal assault. They were definitely a highlight of the trip. Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany. This castle put every other one to shame. Part of that is because it's newer and part is because they have done a great job with it. The whole thing, from the views of the valley and mountains to the interior is absolutely awe-inspiring. Let me just say that, despite the Wagnerian themes that are used throughout, it's a castle that anybody could be happy with. I don't know much Wagner other than "O Fortuna" so I'm not a good one to ask about all the themery. Wieskirche, Germany. This was the only other really remarkable interior of a church that I saw. It was amazing, but in a very different way than Melk. Add up the donuts that were being sold right across the way from it and you have a good looking, delicious combination. Garmisch, Germany. This is the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain(s?) in Germany. The way the clouds got trapped in the middle was very, very cool. Munich, Germany. Apparently our Lord and Savior is in the Rolex business now, as He has a chain of stores throughout Germany. Munich, Germany. Go to the Hofbrauhaus, whether you drink or not. It's a true German experience that you have to see (and hear!) to believe. The rest of the city was impressive as well, but not as much so as other parts of the trip. Dachau, Germany. If there's one thing that everyone on this planet should do, it's visit a concentration camp. There's nothing else that can help you to truly see what Hitler did to the Jews and other opponents nor the true depth of evil that was the Nazi philosophy. This took the better part of a day to visit, and I wouldn't have wanted to do anything else. Absolutely astounding, and this one isn't even that "evil" in the classic, "killed millions of people" way that Auschwitz and Treblinka were. Nuremberg, Germany. This was a very cool, typical German city. Things were much less expensive here, which I appreciated. They got pretty hammered during World War II, so I was impressed with the restorative work here that kept the feel of an old-timey German town. Heidelberg, Germany. If anything, this got World War II worse than Nuremberg. As a result, it felt more like Japan to me than any other place we went. From the train station that was the central hub of the city to the somewhat faithful reproductions of everything in site, it reminded me of so much I've seen before Frankfurt, Germany. (New York + Tokyo + Germany + London)/4. This is the same as any other big city in the world. It was an amazing contrast from the rest of the country that we'd seen. There was very little attempt to old-timey it and they just went straight for Financial Capital of Germany.
I just got back from my trip to Austria and Germany, one that cost less than $1500 for my wife and I for 9 days. How you might ask?
Frequent Flyer miles: I do enough business travel that this builds up, but there are always little tricks knocking about like the "eat at 25 restaurants on this list, spend over $25, get 35000 miles" one that helped put me over the top.
Hotel points: These are the red-headed stepchild of travel benefits, but in terms of how much they are worth, they can be more valuable than airline miles.
Cheap car. I can drive a stick shift, and so the car wasn't too expensive. Unlike on a typical business trip, you don't want to get a big car because gas is a small fortune in Europe and the roads are small, so the smaller the better. Fortunately small=cheap.
I'm nothing if not a miles/points scrounger, and so I've been able to do a couple of these in my lifetime. Right now I'm low on hotel points, but I could do another flight easily. Some of my general observations:
If you're on a toilet paper run on the Germany/Austria border, spend the extra time to go to a German store. All things considered, even the toilet paper in public bathrooms in Germany beat the toilet paper at 5-star hotels in Austria. I wouldn't have thought that was the case, but I experienced it.
German drivers are just as bad as those anywhere. Don't let anybody fool you, even though they can certainly build a sweet road (if only I had my car over there instead of the piece of crap I did - it was shaking like a Mexican space shuttle when I hit 100 MPH), they still are prone to gawk, rubberneck, cut off, and get in an accident.
The Autobahn is a driving mecca. Give me some of this action, US! I don't know how it works, but it does work with people going at 120 MPH and others going 60 MPH. I think the key is that you don't pass on the right and that if you are slow in that fast lane you're likely to have a BMW permanently attached to your rear bumper.
Anarchists must not have great spacial reasoning skills, at least those who feel it's their duty to spray paint monuments and other assorted masonaria. This is the first, and in my opinion greatest example I saw of it on my trip:
Engrish is not just an Oriental phenomenon. I had thought this during my previous trips to Europe, as the English was pretty good. However, I saw a couple of examples that almost put Japanese Engrish to shame:
I don't think I'll whinge about US gas prices for a good long time. We payed the US equivalent of $7/gallon in Europe. If that doesn't make $3/gallon look good, I don't know what will. What really annoyed me is that I didn't fill up before leaving Austria, because their gas was a solid €.20/liter cheaper than in Germany. Dar you not having internet!
Everyone spoke English! It was crazy, but I never felt like I had to break out my non-existent German skills. I seem to recall this from past trips to Europe, but this was certainly a nice reminder. I don't know if that makes me an ugly American or not, but I was quite happy with the not having to speak German or relying on a system of pointing and mispronouncing to be somewhat understood.
I loved this trip. We were going to take our little girl, but we decided about two weeks before we left to not. It was the best decision we made. Our daughter loved staying with her grandparents and we loved having the freedom to do whatever we wanted on the trip. Every parent should plan to have a few days away from their kids at least once every couple of years. You need it...they don't so much, but it helps you to focus on your relationship rather than you + the kids.
Driving in Germany was much easier than anticipated, even with the insane amount of oblivious bikers. I'd not want to do it for a living or anything, but it gave us far more freedom than the original plan of a rail pass did, plus it was cheaper, even when you factor in the cost of gas and garaging the car.
I was at the gym this morning with my wife and she noticed on the news that a flaming car had crashed into Glasgow Airport. This, in conjunction with the terror plots that were "foiled"yesterday (I would say botched rather than foiled, but I could be mistaken), seems to imply that these are a concerted attack on the United Kingdom. On one hand, this is again somewhat failed. Clearly their bombmaker is not the brightest man on the planet. That's a good thing. On the downside though, just as the first terror attacks everywhere have seemed a bit bush league, this is not going to get better, it will just get worse. Eventually they won't misfire or just cause a fire at an airport. Instead, it will lead to bombs that actually work. Those could grow in complexity and size until they cause some real damage. What does al Qaeda or whomever really want from this? It's not just a matter of getting out of the Middle East, they want full capitulation. Of course, Britain isn't Spain and I see this turning out badly for everyone. The British won't just give in (see Hitler, Adolf). I think that sometimes people see democracies' desire for peace as a weakness (and it is) and think that that trend will continue. However, if they aren't careful we will bring the thunder down (for a few years anyway). Also, here's a little more on yesterday's plot:
A lot of thoughts for today and I know that if I try to make a post out of each of them, most will go either as little tiny posts or else unsaid.
Disney is stopping the direct to DVD blight that was their sequels to classic Disney films. While that won't stop films that have already been made and possibly not ones that were already greenlit, this has to be counted as one of the greatest developments in the history of childrens filmmaking. Thank you Lasseter and Jobs for stopping the endless Disney rape of my childhood. While Disney wasn't ever on the On Notice section here, they should have been as they were certainly On Notice for that. Disney...you're hereby off notice.
The Supreme Court struck down racial quotas for school enrollment. While I can see why this could be seen as a setback for civil rights, it's actually a step forward. I can see why it would have been necessary in the aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education because the South had to be forcibly integrated, but at this point in time it's a setback for civil rights. The best quote on the subject that I've ever heard is from Chief Justice Roberts (who has been a stellar pick so far IMO): "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." That's a novel concept that has been ignored by too many for too long.
Dual car bombs in London that probably should have exploded last night in Picadilly Circus is not a good sign for the British (or the US for that matter). Based on a variety of factors (including the use of Mercedes Benzes - the third world dictator/Arab terrorist car of choice) you might as well assume that this is the work of Islamic extremists that may or may not be a part of al Qaeda. The big question that I have is why Britain is such a fat target. I honestly would think that the US would be a jucier one, but ever since September 11 we haven't had anything happen. Meanwhile in Britain they've had Richard Reid (could technically be a plot against us too, as it was a Transatlantic flight), the subway bombings, last year's airline plot (see Richard Reid's parentheses), and now this. Someone's mad at them for being more than just the Little Satan. It's no coincidence that only about 10 days ago those al Qaeda "attack the West" training videos appeared from under some Pakistani stone. While these wouldn't have approached the destructive level that the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut did, Picadilly Circus is teeming with people and there could easily have been hundreds of casualties.
Finally, in the movies that I must see before the end of summer category, A Mighty Heart. I got the book when it came out a few years back and it was absolutely incredible. If you haven't read it, I highly (moreso than anything else I've reviewed here) recommend reading it. You can pick it up right here for under 3 bucks for the hardcover (+ S&H). Take a look at the trailer. If you are in the market for a movie and aren't opposed to R ratings, see this film:
The Wall Street Journal poses an interesting question in yesterday's issue. It's something that has been batted about in academic circles for a bit, but it hasn't seriously been considered until now. There are people who want to enlarge NATO. That's nothing new. Turkey has been considered, then former Communist Bloc countries, and even pieces of the former Soviet Union (most notably Ukraine). Now, with Iran having a hardliner as President and restarting its nuclear program with the express purpose of wiping Israel off the map, people are considering inviting Israel into NATO. While this sounds ridiculous, it's a very realist view. The thinking goes that if Israel is part of NATO, then it will provide a greater deterrent to the Iranian mullahs, because you could, in theory, eliminate the Israeli nuclear stockpiles with several well placed nuclear bombs of your own. However, if they were a part of NATO, and NATO's charter specifically says that if one member is attacked, all are attacked, then there are approximately 10,000 nuclear weapons to retaliate with. There are still issues, however. Quoting from the Journal:
The majority of NATO's 26 members still firmly opposes Israeli membership as too polarizing both within the organization and among Mideast players. Belgium and France, for example, are far from ready for territorial defense of Tel Aviv. For their part, Israeli leaders, after years of self-reliance, are divided on whether to trust any security guarantee other than their own -- particularly if it comes from Europeans, whom Israelis consider traditionally pro-Arab and historically anti-Semitic.
Those issues would have to be worked out, but it's nothing that's un-workoutable, especially with the continued issues revolving around the Mohammed cartoons. From the Journal again:
The cartoon controversy has been a wake-up call to Europeans, who increasingly view the danger from Islamists to be much broader than an anti-U.S. phenomenon. Europeans are coming to see the threat as geographically closer to them than to the U.S. and domestically more dangerous because of extremists within their unintegrated minority populations.
I am for Israeli membership in NATO. It's a smart move in a lot of respects. It gives NATO a credible partner in the Middle East, and assuming that Iraq continues its march toward democracy, it could pave the way for Iraqi entrance into NATO as well (also assuming that they won't freak out being in the same alliance as Israel). It could help to stabilize the region, and it helps Israel back down from their current first strike policy if they feel threatened. There are problems too, however. The first one is that it may not deter Iran. With the way that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is acting, it may not work. He may destroy Tel Aviv and a good portion of Israel (I don't see Jerusalem being destroyed due to its cultural significance to Islam) even with the knowledge that soon thereafter Tehran and the rest of Iran would be uninhabitable for decades. He may bank on the Russians coming to his aid, mimicing the old Cold War spheres again, just in a new arena, and with Putin at the helm, I wouldn't be surprised if that did happen. Finally, it could be seen as one more piece of evidence about what Robert Fisk terms "The Plot" (everybody against the Arabs). Right now everybody's taking it slow, and that's exactly how it should be. There are a lot of variables that need to be looked at before we move this direction, but I think that in the end it's a wise decision.
