History...

I recently had a casual debate with a person  over a somewhat controversial idea based on history... Now I say casual because: 1- that person was a good friend of mine and we could never be super heated over such a trivial subject (literally-trivial) 2- neither of us are majors in the subject we were discussing. Well that's not entirely true, because I am a minor in the topic- which was history. An early advantage to me, right!?
Now I know right about now you are reading this and are thinking "Who the hell minors in history? What are you trying to be, a high school teacher!?" No. After realizing how much of an annoying pinhead I was in high school, there is not a chance in the world that I would task myself with molding young minds, yet alone deal with idiots. Those who do, however, are the key to our country's success. (or demise...) I doubt I could handle the future of the most powerful country on Earth.. Yikes.
Anyway, we were discussing the American situation in the Middle East, and the argument was if history was cyclical or linear.
If you are by chance a history major/minor, then I am sure you have had that professor who starts off every term with this discussion. I've had teachers argue both sides. This only makes the argument more interesting to me.
For the sake of, well, you, I'll limit historical examples to strictly what we were arguing about.
We were discussing the fact of guerrilla warfare, and why the mighty American military struggles to contain and suppress a relatively weak force in the Taliban/Al Qaeda insurgency.
I argued that success against guerrilla warfare is a very difficult feat to pull off, and historically, this has been the case.
Perhaps the most prevalent example of guerrilla warfare which is taught in every school at every level is the American Revolutionary War. Take the British military- a highly trained and professional fighting force- and put them up against a rat-pack of farmers, teenagers, preachers and militia men. A massacre would ensue- on a conventional battlefield. The British were armed better, equipped better, and led better. The newly proclaimed "Americans" knew this. Guess what? So does the Insurgency in the Middle East. The Patriots played to their advantages, which were excellent marksmanship, knowledge of the local terrain; and above all, a deeper desire to win their freedom.
Now I am not saying that our American fighting force has no desire to win or to protect freedom.  What I am saying, however, is that like the British, our fighting force are paid professionals who are there to do their job, receive pay, and return home to their families.
No regard for human life certainly wins the war when it is a war of attrition.
There are many similarities between the Insurgency and our American Revolutionaries. The Revolutionaries won their fight because of their advantages (and I hate to say it, but a little help from those French bastards)
The insurgency has not been completely eradicated because of their tactics as well. A force who ambushes and retreats is insanely hard to defeat, as shown by:
1. American Revolutionary War
2. Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan (1970s)
3. French resistance in Nazi-Occupied France in WW2
4. Soviet urban warfare in Stalingrad vs. German Army in WW2 (and a little help from mother mature)
Also many others, but these are perhaps the most obvious and best examples.
In this case, history is undoubtedly cyclical. All of these instances pitted a borderline desperate force against a much larger one, and the one with less to lose came out on top....
I'm out of time but there's just a little food for thought. The one with the most stunning similarity to our current situation is the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. I encourage you to just wikipedia the topic- super crazy to see how similar it is to our war. Any thoughts on this are more than welcome! Have a nice day.

Summertime in the 509

Sooooo I am, like, totes jealous of like, semester school kids who are like, on summer VAYCAY right now OMG!.......
Once again I apologize for slacking on posting, as I'm sure my vast following of people have been on the edge of their desk chairs waiting for my next blog...
2 sentences, 2 completely sarcastic statements. Great start...
In any case, summer is fast approaching, and for those of you who are Cougars, Beavers, Grizzlies, etc, summer is already upon you. Us Ducks, Huskies, Vikings, Eagles, and Sasquatch (I see you, Spokane Falls Students!!!) still have a solid month of midterms, papers and finals to endure before the golden rays can be soaked up. Oh joy. When that fateful weekend of June the 10th or so arrives, I will be returning home to Spokane to coach the Lewis and Clark AA legion team to a state title. Well probably not, but I'm staying optimistic. Still a sweet job that I am looking forward to! Other than that, I am applying for various internships with news and radio stations in Spokane and hope to land a job in some sort of sports field. But besides that, I have made a list of things that I want to do before summer ends and I head off to the motherland that is St. Petersburg, Russia in late August.
1. Soccer Golf in Manito Park. Actually insanely fun- I encourage everyone to try this.
2. Bomb the hills on and around Brown's Mountain. With motor scooters as towing rides back up (Thanks Nolan and Ryan!) and longboards, Blake Reed and I conquered the likes of Bernard, Cedar, and Lincoln during Summer 2010. Time to step up not only our stupidity, but our health insurance policies as well.
3. Barbeque. Nuff Said.
4. Bonfires more often. Cliff park hosted a fair amount of chill-out sessions, but not nearly enough times.
5. Wiffle Ball. I know we can get some sort of league going- who's down?
Please share any other ideas that you may have- Especially manly stuff. Although Daniel Wukelic's basement was awesome last summer, I think some more time outdoors would be much more entertaining. (Sorry, Dwuke)