Women in Frontline Combat

[cory]

I lived in Russia from 2008-2009. I’ve never seen a people so proud to have such a low self-esteem, who simultaneously can’t be criticized and are the best at everything.

It’s a sparsely-populated northern Tzardom at Hudson Bay latitude, isolated from the trade routes. I was almost shocked at how primitive it is.

Driving is much easier in the winter when all the potholes are filled with ice and covered with snow.

I come from a long line of rednecks. Your initial statement sounds very familiar. haha

Much of eastern Russia is still very primitive, but then so is western China, and most of the world. We have isolated areas of Alaska that are still primitive as I suspect Canada has even more. If it hadn't been for Eisenhower's Interstate Act we'd likely have many areas of the west that would still be primitive. My wife has an aunt that lives in eastern Russia who never had kids, her dad's family is from there, she went home after we got married and traveled to see that part of her family. Her aunt had saved up what was roughly $10k American dollars and was going to give it to my wife as a wedding present. She didn't have any banks within a days drive, so she hid the money in the tank of her toilet. When she went to retrieve the money, it was gone. They suspect a handyman she paid to fix some plumbing problems found the money and took it.

Their people didn't really participate in the Renaissance particularly the Enlightenment that shaped Western Culture as we know it. It's also worth pointing out that the Enlightenment was if not a direct result at least facilitated by Martin Luther's Reformation, which Eastern Europe didn't take part in. Russia was still largely an agrarian based serfdom. They were the last European power to modernized and when they did they moved into full blown communism that was catastrophic to their culture. They've always been what we'd consider a corrupt culture, but communism made it worst. Virtually all the cultures of the world have always been corrupt to some degree by western standards. Corruption seems to me to be the natural state of humanity.

Our Western Society isn't inherently uncorrupt. It only grew into what we know it as today because it nurtured certain Judeo/Christian tenets over the course of many generations. Generations that stretched over a thousand years that thankfully trended in the right direction. The world is plagued with problems we expect to be fixed today that realistically will only be fixed over the course of many generations. Russia was never going to be Americanized in one generation. Especially when you consider how we've treated Russia and their people since the fall of the Soviet Union. When you study what has actually transpired since the fall of the wall, Russia isn't the good guys, but America is undoubtedly the bad guys. And y'all know how much it pains me to say that. After what the Soviet Union did in Vietnam, America was justified in what it did in Afghanistan. After what America did in Afghanistan Russia would have arguably been justified in supporting the Taliban like Iran supported the Irag insurgency, but they didn't. Yet here we are continuing this bloody cycle in Ukraine with no logical justification.

The ideas on which our country was founded, the ideas that make this country exceptional, were developed over a period of more than 1,000 years. It took another 60 years for us to realize those ideas to the point we ended slavery and we still haven't fully realized those ideas today. The Russian people by en large want to Americanize, but it won't happen over night and we should stop expecting that of any culture. It appears to me that the world would be best served if America once again became the shining city on the hill. We should be exporting the ideas on which Freedom is built, not God forsaken democracy. Am I right or wrong? Hell if I know. Maybe we should only strive to help other cultures trend towards a freedom loving society and measure it generationally. Pushing harder appears to be catastrophic at worst and more harm than good at best.

Cultures won't be reformed into free societies in a single generation. However, it appears that free societies can be torn down in a single generation. America is devolving into a corrupt despotism before our eyes and most of the West has a head start on us. I hope that America can rise up from this craziness and corruption that has engulfed her. I hope that one day I'll get to take my children to visit their Mother's birthplace. It's my hope that we find a path where my Grandkids are discussing Russia's entry into the European Union and NATO. Unfortunately we're on the path to WWIII, which will undoubtedly bring global destruction.

If we could erase the 20th Century for one moment and take a look at the foreign policy landscape we would see just how ridiculous a European Union is without Russia. Truthfully Russia has more ties to Europe than we do in many respects. Unfortunately how we see the world is largely shaped by an old British foreign policy axiom that sees the world as made up of seafaring nations and land nations. Under this axiom they've always feared an alliance between Germany and Russia and as such has been committed to preventing it at all costs. (I can't seem to remember or find the term for this to save my life. If someone could help me out I'd appreciate it.)

I hope I'm wrong, but under this foreign policy this administration has likely accomplished the greatest geopolitical blunder in history in pushing China, Russia, and India into an alliance of necessity. I don't mean that in a hyperbolic since to any degree. We tend to assume that a Chinese & Russian anti American alliance was inevitable, but that couldn't be further from the truth. This is directly due to American actions since the fall of the wall. I've long held that India will be the lynch pin in a Chinese/American centric WWIII. We've managed to push India towards their natural enemy in China through our alienations of Russia. All over actions we would all support of America if China did in Mexico, Cuba, or Canada what America is doing in Ukraine.

I apologize for the off topic diatribe. It wasn't my intent when I began my reply. If my history as I know it is wrong, someone please correct me. As I like to tell my guys at work, I don't care about being right, I only care about getting it right.