Faith + Reason = Truth

You read it here 1st, my friends.  This morning, CNet picked up a story from physorg.com about the Russian submarine claiming North Pole energy resources that I posted about yesterday.  Physorg.com's story was published 4 hours ago, which was over 12 hours after I posted on it directly from Pravda.  Granted, PhysOrg has juicy maps and graphics as well as more insightful commentary than I did, but hey, there's nothing wrong with trolling foreign newspaper sites yourself just to be the first to know!

I've been listening to that old Sting song "Russians" on the iPod lately, and it's been reminding me of how far we've come over the past 20-25 years.  Then, we had Ronald Reagan calling the Soviets an "evil empire" while the major broadcast tv event of my junior high days was "The Day After," a depiction of life during and after a nuclear strike.  And as Sting so eloquently reminded us, Mr. Kruschev said they would bury us, followed years later by Mr. Reagan saying he would protect us.  Comparisons of the Soviet enemy to our modern nemesis al Qaeda may seem obvious or even appropriate, but they aren't at all, as far as I can read the situations.  Back then, the Soviets were driven by paranoia and fear of Westerners, as they have been since Napoleon tried to conquer them 200 years ago.  They were never a colonial power, they were never interested in projecting their power or influence; they have simply been interested in security, and in the Cold War, security entailed the establishment of a "barrier" of satellite countries to insulate them from ground assault.  Today, they are still interested in security above all else. But when pushed hard enough, they respond with belligerent tones and threatening postures, as Putin has been doing lately.  Al Qaeda, on the other hand, wants to project, to bring the fight to us, to influence non-Islamic fundamentalists to mend their ways or perish.

As a teenager, I really thought the world would end in nuclear holocaust, and that it would happen sooner rather than later.  How close to the truth that really was and how much of it was propaganda, we'll never know, because we didn't have the complete freedom and accessibility to foreign media and world events that now exists thanks to the internet, wireless communications, and digital media.  I couldn't make myself a sandwich, punch a few keys on a keyboard, and look at the front page of Pravda (or Tass - remember always hearing about "the Soviet news agency Tass?").  Still, I wouldn't say we're out of the woods just yet.