Czar Putin and Dictator Bush

Russia is back!!
Czar Putin!!
Unilateral action by Russia!!
Russia attacks a democracy!!

These are some of the statements that I heard/read over the last couple of weeks. While I am not shocked, I have been provoked. Not that I am a fan of what Russia does. Nor do I have a vested interest in anything Russian.

I am still provoked...

I am provoked not because I disagree with those statements, but because I really have no way of making up my mind whether the statements are right or wrong. I am uninformed. So are the most of the people living in the United States.

So, What is the root cause of the Georgian conflict? As I understand it, a part of Georgia wants independence and Russia took sides. It just happens to be the wrong side of America. Is it that simple... probably not. But it is close.

First let me clarify my position on this issue. Though I respect human rights and understand the implications of not holding nations accountable for violating them, in the larger interest of the world, I would rather have individual nations deal with their internal conflicts. It is when an outside nation tries to meddle with someone's internal affair that greater problems arise. If every nation in this world respected Sovereignty, there would be far less war and a lot more peace.

That said, when an outside nation pokes its nose into someone's affairs, the other "responsible" nations need to exercise even more caution. They can condemn the actions, but they need to do it consistently. They should ensure the tensions don't escalate further and at the same time work with both the aggressor and the defender to achieve peace. They should not view this as an opportune moment to instill fear and misinformation amongst its citizens. This is, unfortunately, exactly what the U.S media and U.S government have used the Georgian crisis for.

I believe democracy, while not perfect, is still the best practical form of governance. That, however, doesn't, by itself, make an attack on a communist nation any less criminal. Or on a socialist nation. We, as democratic nations, can be proud of our governments, but at the same time, we need to show respect for other forms of government, especially when we see such forms of government working (like in China).

The second part of the problem is playing on the fears of the cold war era. "Czar Putin", please give me a break... Russia is a democracy and Putin is an elected official. If waging a war to protect his country's interests (whether right or wrong) makes Putin a "Czar", then innumerable Heads of the many nations around the world are no less criminal. The current President of the U.S tops that list with honors.

Russia is in its right to fear the U.S missile defense systems in East Europe. Voicing a strong opposition to what it perceives as a threat to its security (assurances of the U.S notwithstanding) doesn't make it a rogue nation. The government of U.S would probably have done the same thing (and a little more) if it were faced with the same situation. As the leader of his nation, if Putin stands up for its cause, it only makes him a strong leader, not a criminal, as being portrayed in the U.S media.

It is the responsibility of the media and the intelligentsia of a nation to inform and educate the common man. I would prefer a complete factual and neutral report of the history of the crisis and its implications to the rest of the world over the death toll in the current war. Sensationalized headlines that do little but raise the anxiety levels of the common man (who most probably knows zilch about Georgia or Russia) are a shame.

Digging Ourselves Out Of Local Optimums

Last week, I put my house up for sale. Buying your house at the peak of the housing bubble (2006) and trying to sell it at the bottom of it is not a financially wise choice. You will inevitably lose money. At first, my wife, my parents, and my in-laws were not happy about it. I guess they understood my reasons and supported my attempts to sell and move back to India to do an MBA, but they, living in their own fantasy lands, hoped to get nearly every penny that I paid for in 2006. They were hoping to find an "uneducated" buyer who has been comatose for the last couple of years and is unaware of prevailing market conditions.

I wouldn't call them greedy, they were just unrealistic. Myopic is probably more apt. I am the one who is greedy: I am willing to forego a settled lifestyle to go get an MBA in India so that I can further my long-term career. My wife is happy with what we have now (she has always preferred a simple common-man lifestyle over my preference to a famous one). I don't want to have the burden of managing this house from India and so I am willing to take a realistic financial loss in the short-term.

In optimization, an algorithm that seeks true optimality has to be aware of existing "local optima" in its path. A local optimum is a point which, when compared to all its adjacent points seems to be the best possible outcome, yet when compared to the entire feasible solution space, is not the most optimal. The global optimum (as I see it today) for my life is to move back to India, stay close to parents, do an MBA and become something big. I believe my decision to live with short-term losses is in line with this long-term approach to optimality.

World affairs are no different than affairs at my home (just the scale and therefore the complexities are different). United States, as a nation, might have been sucked into the Iraq war by a bunch of no good politicians, or, alternatively, led into a legitimate combat by a group of visionaries who saw what the rest of the world are still failing to see. The objectives then for the war may have been legit, or, may be not. That is no more relevant. What should be the focus for the people of USA is what its long term objective is now, not what it should have been then. Discussions about the war should revolve more around what is the most optimal Iraq strategy in the long-term given today's scenario, and not whether the war was justified to begin with.

But what do we get from both sides of the aisle? Between the two Presidential nominees, one argues for an immediate pullout of all troops from Iraq and the other for staying the course indefinitely. It serves both parties well, in the short term (campaign year etc.), to take those stands and in that sense they are just seeking (sub-consciously) their respective local optima. They have chosen a popular stand (to their individual constituencies) with no regard or thought for what is right for the nation as a whole. In the process, they forgot that it is the nation, and not their constituency, that they will inherit as the President.

I have issues with both these positions. An immediate pullout will cause irreparable instability in Iraq that could potentially change the social and political dynamics of the middle-east forever. An indefinite war with no visible progress and no prospects is not something U.S could afford militarily, politically and more importantly economically. Unfortunately, in this case, there is no such thing as a middle ground. What is needed here is intervention. An intervention that will create prospects - prospects for all parties involved, and a solution that will replace the mistrust and animosity with hope and peace. That is what I would like to hear from the two Presidential candidates - how they are planning to intervene and alter the course of this war and pull us all out of this quagmire.

One who takes a stand (whatever it might be) without explaining his/her position and without stating the long-term vision and without deliberation as to the consequences of executing on that vision doesn't make a leader.

In my family's case, they forced me to state clearly and then defend my position on what my long-term goal is before I could put the house on the market. In the process, my family made me a leader. If only we could do the same with the Presidential nominees... If only Presidential debates were meaningful... If only news coverage was more objective... If only editorials didn't lose their importance... If only campaigns didn't get stuck in local optima...

Like my family was hoping to find an uneducated, comatose buyer for my house (before I talked them out of it), both the candidates are wishing the "average" voter will neither question nor seek clarifications on their positions. Let's talk them out of it...