SCIFI-BABE.COM - ShishKabar: Fighting the wrong war!

"Fighting The Wrong War!"

A Report by Rebecca Di Angelo:

BACKGROUND: Scaba Monfat, the President of Shishkabar is fighting a Religious War, in an attempt to make an ancient prophesy a reality. The Vice President, Dik Hema, is engaged in a Resource War, to seize vital energy supplies and reconstruction contracts for his corporate buddies - and, through them, incredible wealth for himself. The Secretary of War, Duna Ruma, is 'live' testing his theory that a slimmed down, fast moving, 'shock and awe' military capability is the way to go, while receiving huge rewards from the corporations who benefit from an ever increasing military budget. For now, their personal motivations are as one. But for how long? And how is all of this preventing them from dealing with a very real threat that's just around the corner?

From the moment he entered politics as the least favored son of the former President, Erns Monfat, Scaba Monfat has been a divisive leader and, some might say, a narcissistic, sociopathic, bully, as well. His election victory was narrow, to the point his detractors say of being fraudulent, but to the members of the Church of The Devine Messenger, he was mana from heaven! Driven by the belief he shared with the church that the end of the universe was nigh (a far from unique opinion, as it happens, shared by many a despot across the galaxy), he was ripe for the eating as far as his nefarious and manipulative Vice President and Secretary of War were concerned. Not given to reading the policy, intelligence and economic reports that piled up on his desk each morning, he prefered, instead, to take his direction from his two 'trusted' advisors, both of whom had cut their political teeth as it were while serving in his father's administration.

After Erns Monfat left office, Hema lost his position as Deputy Secretary of War, moved back to the public sector and into the chairmanship of Ashkalon Incorporated, a failing infrastructure and mining conglomerate. Upon returning to politics and taking up his duties as VP in Scaba Monfat's administration, Hema then proceded to direct numerous no-bid contracts the way of his old company, which he claims, even today, to have no interest in. For Ruma, the break between administrations was filled with all manner of money making schemes, most of which involved the development of advanced weapon's systems - which, strangely enough, the Shishkabar armed forces purchased with massive, un-monitored, open-ended, no-bid contracts the moment he was sworn in as Scaba Monfat's Secretary of War.

In a moment of breathtaking lunacy, based on the firm belief that he had just had a one on one conversation with the Supreme Being himself, Monfat declared war on Cragura, Shishkabar's neighbor in the Serengett star system. A neighbor, as it happens, that had little in the way of defense, and a lot in the way of underdeveloped resources, namely gashicam (hydrocarbons) and uranam (a mineral ore vital to the production of fuel, needed to further Shishkabar's pursuit of interplanetary trade). Unfortunately for Monfat - and Shishkabar - the Cragurans, though poorly armed, managed to put up a reasonable defense of their homeworld by indulging in what Duna Ruma called, "Fighting dirty".

Ruma had seen this adventure as a heaven-granted opportunity to prove his 'shock and awe' argument to a largely unconvinced group of commanders, who had seen hundreds of their fellow officers dispatched to early retirement, careers in politics, think tanks, all week drunken binges and the odd scandal involving a lady or gentleman of the night. So what was this thing Ruma called "dirty fighting"?

The whole purpose of 'shock and awe' is just that: shock and awe - an overwhelming assault that leaves your opponent's forces disrupted, disillusioned and, more importantly, dead, while minimizing your own casualties. In the case of Cragura, however, Shishkabar's attack met with little resistance, though this was less of a plan, than a total capitulation in the face of superior forces. Having stood proudly on the flight deck of Shishkabar's largest warship - the Ashkalon Erns Monfat - and announced to a spellbound audience that the mission had been accomplished, Monfat and the Shishkabar armed forces found themselves, almost overnight, in a guerilla war that still rages, today, seven years later. And the part about 'dirty fighting' comes from the fact that because the Craguran's have no heavy armor, no battle tanks and no warships, they are forced to use remotely detonated bombs, placed under rock, in garbage cans, or even straped to themselves, to kill or maim Shishkabar infantry and vehicles. Their losses have been massive, but their martyrs are féted by their religious leaders as heroes. In fact, this practice of sacrificing their life for the glory of their Supreme Being is so deeply ingrained in their religion that they have been 'fighting dirty' since long before the Shishkabar forces arrived on their world. It would be fair to say, I think, that it is their preferred way of making their point. However, in doing so, they have prevented a single barrel of gashicam and a single pound of uranam from being removed from their world. Yet, all the while, Ashkalon makes obscene profits rebuilding what the Shishkabar forces have demolished, and rebuilding it again after they come back for a second or third, 'Operation Kill the Buggers'.

So what of the real threat Shishkabar faces?

With its military machine worn down, broken down, or just plain blown up, Shishkabar is close to becoming a spent force. Torn by internal strife, scandal, public disillusionment with the political process, and growing indebtedness caused by an over reliance on imported goods from its other neighbor, Chine, Shishkabar is teetering on the edge of financial collapse, while Ashkalon (and Hema) cleans up and avoids paying taxes by incorporating itself in the low tax haven of Capsicorn III - two star systems away from Shishkabar.

Chine, for its part, its economy based, not on the conspicuous consumption of gashicam, but on renewable resources, like solar, wind and wave power, and a few small nuclear reactors, has prospered. Though ruled by an elite for whom censorship, invasion of privacy and the use of slave labor to manufacture the goods Shishkabarians so rabidly desire are simply the means by which a cohesive society is forged and kept together, Chine now finds itself bankrolling Shishkabar - effectively, 'owning the bone'. Had this been Chine's intention all along, one would be forced to admire them, despite their attrocious civil rights record. But, the fact is, by not ridding itself of its dependence on gashicam, Shishkabar has brought disaster down on its own head, with help from no one.

Drowning in debt, Monfat is now threatening Chine over its use of nuclear technology, accusing it of, "taking part in the proliferation of dangerous technology", labelling it a member of an axis of evil, spanning Serengett and the neighboring star system of Teshken, as well as decrying its very existance as an abomination of all that's holy!

As the recently fired Secretary of Public Finance was heard to say, the day after he was escorted from his department, "Monfat is closer to achieving his ultimate goal than he can possibly know." Under his breath, he added, "Crazy Bastard, he'll get us all killed!"