Department of Defense's Archaeology Playing Cards

When one, if one ever, thinks of how the War on Terrorism affected playing cards the likely sole answer is the Iraq most wanted cards. However, few know that the American Department of Defense also has created playing cards dealing with the archaeology of Iraq and Afghanistan. The moral of the cards can be summed up as "Don't blow things up and don't offend the locals."

The archaeology awareness playing cards (PDF of cards) seeks to impress the importance of archaeology on soldiers. The cards use language that impresses importance to the soldiers like the two of clubs that features the hill in Iraq where Jonah is believed to be buried or the three of diamonds which teaches insurgents sale artifacts, sometimes to soldiers, to finance terrorism.

The cards have limited distribution and hard to come by. However, the fact that soldiers are receiving them is evidence of the Defense Department understanding the correlation between good relations and cultural heritage preservation.

World Hunger Map

Click map to Enlarge

The United Nations Word Food Program created a map in 2006 of undernursument worldwide. The map reflects the common Core and Gap themes with central Africa suffering the worst. However, the second world has noticable problems nurishing their people so malnurishment is not solely a "African and Asian" problem.

Olympic Ad Show Unity, Not Patriotism and Globalization is Not to Blame

There has been some fuss made about some of the Olympic Games advertising done by business. Companies like Coca-Cola and VISA are going out of their way to emphasize themes of cooperation and global unity. The pop company is no longer offering its solely pro-U.S. cans in the United States but is selling pro-Ethiopian, Russian, Thai, and world unity cans as well. VISA has advertisements featuring athletes from various countries. Going back to Coke, they released an ad (below) showing unity between the U.S. and China.

Some will claim these advertisements reflect the globalized era where transnational companies is common and the desire for world unity is strong. These assessments are wrong. Two main factors are in play. Lack of nationalism/patriotism in some Americans who prefer see the Olympics as a world unity event rather than a competition between nations. The second equally important reason is the desire of American companies not to offend the People's Republic of China. The Olympics are P.R. China's coming out party and they take offense to any perceived slight; France is suffering from a massive travel boycott because the Olympic flame was mistreated in Paris over Tibet.

The feelings of "unity" are not universal. In the People's Republic the ads highly tout the Red Chinese team in their effort to dethrone the Americans for most gold. Just check out the ad below where all of China supports their stars.

For a person who grew up with the "American Dream Team" and strong patriotic displays this time is hard to bear. It could be worse though. The games could be tainted by government corruption resulting in disqualification, human rights abuses, banning baseball, and mascots who some believe are harbingers of Hell. Oh wait.

Korea's Second Division Fifty-fifth Anniversary

Hundreds of thousands died for such small geographical change

Fifty-five years ago today the Korean peninsula was divided two, again, in a cease-fire agreement between the United States led United Nations, the People's Republic of China, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK aka North Korea). The Republic of Korea (ROK aka South Korea) refused to sign the cease fire and considers itself still in a legal state of hostilities.



Before the First Korean War the Korean peninsula was divided along the 38th Parallel between American and Russian zones. Both countries agreed in World War II that Korea should form a free and independent buffer zone. However, after the war neither side could agree on a formula for unification. So in 1948 both sides created Korean governments in their zones: communist in the Soviet zone and officially capitalistic but in reality an anti-communist dictatorship in the American zone. Neither government recognized each other and both laid claim to represent all of Korea. This continues to this day.



After a few years of small scale battles the Communists invaded the south. A United States-led United Nations army achieved near victory until the non-UN member People's Republic of China intervened and nearly won a communist victory. Stalemate was achieved after two more years of bloody conflict. A routinely violated demilitarized zone, another war, and a nuclear crises have been the conflict's legacy.

The south has modernized, globalized, and democratized while the despotic north claims it is the champion of the Korean race and it must protect the race from unclean foreigners under a military-style government.



Today both countries (Government sites for South and North claims) think themselves as the Korean government. However, both sides are at opposite extremes of what they want. Little break through is seen until leadership change or collapse happens in the north. The quest for unity continues on the divided peninsula.

Fantasy Cartography

Both La Cartoteca and The Map Room have linked to Fantasy Cartography, a blog/depository of maps from fantasy stories Maps of everything from computer games like World of Warcraft, twisted minds like H.P. Lovecraft, to required classics like Lord of the Rings can be found. Catholicgauze knows his women readers will swoon over The Princess Bride maps.

A map can be right up there with the book for those who can read maps. One can easily relive the story by looking at the map and remember the places where events occurred. It is also easy to imagine one's own adventures in these fantasy lands. May my readers get joy and indulge in a little guilty pleasure of part taking in some fantasy.

The Taliban Key to Victory is Pakistan

Red is where the Pakistani army will not go, purple is de facto Taliban control, and yellow shows Taliban influence in Pakistan. From Long War Journal.

Some have wondered why the War on Terrorism in Afghanistan is going so poorly (well, stagnate would be a better term) while the Iraq front has turned so well. The answer is Pakistan. Pakistan serves a base of operations, safe zone, and recurting ground for operations in the area.

The important thing to remember is the Taliban is not an Afghan insurgency but a Pashtun/Baluchi movement against whatever legal system they find themselves against. The legalities of Afghanistan-Pakistan mean nothing to the tribes. The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan is an anything goes ungoverned territory where tribes are allowed to govern themselves.

Recently things have changed for the worse. Not only is FATA a base for operations against the Coalition in Afghanistan, it has become part of the new Pakistani Taliban state. Pakistan has tried several half-hearted attempts to curb the Islamists like in the Swat Valley but mostly the Pakistanis seek "peace treaties" which leave the Taliban in charge. The morale-boosting Taliban victories continues with Pakistan ceding control of Hangu.

It is hard to solve the Pakistan problem. The most obvious answer is to invade the FATA to deny the Taliban safe-heavens. This would follow the Iraq Surge strategy. However, an act like this may collapse the nominally helpful Pakistani government or lead to the rise of an Islamists government. At the very least Pakistani solders would rush to fight against us. So for now we must be content with raids against the Taliban in Pakistan. Hopefully one day we may be able to have Awakening movements against the Pakistani Taliban. But unlike in Iraq where the terrorists were outsiders, the Taliban is representative of the local groups.

The geopolitics and military hurdles of the Pakistani Taliban impose huge problems for the War on Terrorism. They must be solved or this war will only end when we decide to give up and leave.

Shadowed Ground: America's Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy

Humans love to impress themselves on the landscape. Monuments have been built dedicated to great people, great events, and themes that can unite populations. But just as triumph is memorialized so is tragedy. Memorials to tragedies can offer lessons, unite people in common cause, or even offer regret for past sins. There is no one way to mark tragedy. Some wish to “make a big deal about it” with monuments ala Flight 93’s crash site while other times people just want to move on. Author and geographer Kenneth Foote describes in detail the four main ways something is marked on the landscape in Shadowed Ground: America's Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy.

The first style is sanctification. These sites have a form of ceremony which makes them a national, secular scared site. Christening is critical to have a sanctified site. The effort to create and celebrate a sanctified site is part of the monument itself. These sites are considered part of the public domain and meant to be a messenger of a civil religion. The effort and building combined reinforces the values which the culture chooses to value. Sanctified sites are separated from the rest of the landscape. Memorial parks, statues, or buildings in which the purpose has been change to become part of the message, like Ford’s Theater in Washington D.C., are just some examples of sanctified sites.

The second style of memorialization on the landscape according to Foote is designation. Designated sites are deemed important to the culture but are not sanctified. These sites lack a heroic figure or extraordinary event which makes sanctified sites so unique. Like sanctified sites, designated sites tell of past happenings but are less likely to extol virtues of the past. Also, unlike sanctified sties, designated places are still part of the ordinary landscape. Typical examples of designated sites include roadside signs and plaques on side of buildings.

Both sanctification and designation create something on the landscape. Foote’s next two categories feature inaction or negative action. The third style is rectification. Rectification is when a site is put back to its previous use. With rectification there is no marker to tell of past events. The place is simply absorbed into the landscape with nothing to identify it. Rectification is the most common fate for sites of tragedy.

The fourth and final style of memorialization is obliteration. Obliteration is the opposite of sanctification. An intense, group effort is made to destroy a site because it represents the antithesis of what a culture values. Obliterated sites are marked on the landscape as noticeable gaps without official interpretation. When a culture chooses to forget an event by obliterating the site, it ironically keeps the memory alive on the landscape by doing such a rash and noticeable action.

Tragedy is a hard thing to deal with. Like the stages of death of a love one, emotions run high and are varied. Dr. Foote does an excellent job in his easy read yet academic book on how traedgy is marked on the landscape.