Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Troops leaving Iraq and going...somewhere...else?

I was just thinking today about the reported plans for drawing down American troops in Iraq. Where will they go? Back to the USA I'd assume. Oddly enough though in neighboring Iran the new president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been talking some serious smack. Wiping Israel off the map, passing out nuclear bomb plans like PTA flyers to his neighbors, and purging his government of anyone not exactly loyal to him.

Let me see now, we're several years into a war against a regime which was believed to be working feverishly towards nuclear weaponry and now it looks like we might be finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel there. But wait, right next door is another nation which is unquestionably doing the same. I mean, even Jacques Chirac wouldn't deny that now. With all of the Muslim unrest in his country I wonder if the prospect of a nuclear Iran makes him worry. Any chance that some of those soldiers who might be leaving Iraq could soon find themselves deployed to someplace whose name starts with I-R-A but doesn't end with a Q? Who knows, but I do notice that Iran is pretty much pissing everyone off these days. Now rumors are starting to fly that Iran has been training Chechnyn terrorists. You know, like those miserable fucks who killed all of those schoolchildren in Beslan. Russia has had Iran's back in the past, but their support of Chechnyn terrorists is straining that relationship. And after all, why wouldn't Ahmadinejad be helping them out, it seems part of the manifesto. Just ask people in Iraq how if feels to be on the receiving end of Iranian terrorist exports.

I'm not sure how I feel about all of that, but I just have to remember something I noticed some time ago, when looking at this picture, what is that place between Afghanistan and Iraq? Right. Talk about your hammer and anvil. Between those two nations all sorts of military infrastructure has been built up already and American soldiers have learned an awful lot about how to fight in that part of the world. Invading Iran would almost be like invading Iraq all over again but kinda like a "do-over." A chance to avoid the major mistakes and not make such a hash of it. I'd guess that if such an intervention took place that there would be much less of an occupation going on, more like the original sanctions regime that Iraq lived with during the 90s. This time with unfettered access to any potential nuclear sites and probable elimination of any meaningful military power.

Something more to think about.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Reading a new-old mediaeval history book

I've been reading and rereading medieval history books again. As always, "A World Lit only by Fire" is good as a snapshot of the age. I've finally resolved to plow my way through Edward Gibbon's "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" as daunting as that may be. Someday when I learn Jedi-like powers of discipline maybe I'll tackle Will Durant's "The Story Of Civilization" volumes I-XCIX. *

Right now I'm reading H.S. Bennett's "Life On The English Manor." I have a paper-bound edition I found in a second-hand shop that's been languishing on my shelves for ages. Having read the first third I'm reminded of W.S. Davis' "Life on a Mediaeval Barony." Bennett's is written more for serious scholars in search of extensive footnotes, untranslated Old French, Latin, and other tongues, and a bibliography that would crush a grad student's soul. His scholarship is excellent and his appreciation for fine detail brings clarity to some topics I've wondered about. In particular chapter 5 "Rents and Services" gives me a better understanding of the labor relationship between peasants and lords. The services were variably light or heavy but always an inescapable aspect of feudal society. I'd compare the duty owed by a peasant to work for his lord very similar to a combined income tax, property tax, sales tax; you get the idea.

All governments have some form of taxation, and in mediaeval Europe rents and services were it. Money weren't a big a deal in a society where most of the people either grew or made everything they needed and few consumer goods were available. What was important was land and the labor necessary to do something with it. You didn't ask peasants for coins you asked for sweat. If you want to know more pick up this book and see for yourself. Now its time to run off to bed and read some more of my dead friend Gibbon's words. I see in the biographic sketch in the preface to my edition that he was a soldier. Judging by the descriptions of his (to put it kindly) excessive corpulence he wouldn't have lasted five minutes in the 82d Airborne Division when I was there. (segue to old memories of some sergeant hollering at me "Run, fat-boy!" Gee, those were the days.
* not really 99 volumes, it just seems that way on the shelf.
update; edited for poor spell-check usage