Collecting maps deepens understanding of world events

The First Gulf war of1990 introduced me to a new hobby, and it’s been with me ever since. Of those of you were old enough to care at the time, you’ll recall that CNN was taken seriously as a news organization then and they gave us a front-row seat to the conflict.

Mark Twain was once reported as saying, “God created war so that Americans would learn geography,” Well, when it came to the middle east, I’m afraid that I was no exception, but as I watched guided missiles go down chimneys, I wanted a better understanding of what was happening.

At the time, I had a resource for some very detailed, gorgeous maps, and I brought a few home with me. My apartment at the time had a long hallway in it that became my own little war room. At the end of my workday, I could come home, flip on the news, and scramble to my maps for references.

Sadly, I didn’t hang onto those maps. Bush 41 had taken care of business, so we should have no reason to believe that we would be back in there anytime soon. Right? You know the rest of the story. After September 11 of 2001, we went after a country that wasn’t directly involved in the strike, nor was it the home of the person who organized the strike. We lost a lot of good people and fell into an endless, intractable series of conflicts.

Since then, I have always kept a four-foot map in my office above my desk for general reference, plus always a Nebraska map on the back of my office door so I can find the little towns in the state that I haven’t visited yet.I also have a couple of globes that I used for tutorial purposes with my kids, but beyond that, I had not replaced my collection.

Given the recent, fast-moving unrest in the world, I have taken the dive back into mapland. I missed my bunker and the downstairs hallway in my home here in McCook is somewhat similar to the one I rented so many years ago.

I’m just getting started again, so I only have four maps so far. I have two of the South China Sea. One is mostly a navigational map of the waters, while the other is a political map of the surrounding countries. Given China’s desire for hegemony in the region, their extension of territorial waters by building man-made islands, and the crack-down on Hong Kong, I thought that was an important one to have.

As for my Middle East map, where do I begin? We have civil wars taking place in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya. As we attempt to exit the region, the Taliban is gobbling up major urban areas throughout Afghanistan, and it won’t be long before they take Kabul unless we continue to provide air support. Iraq’s position is not much better with Al-Qaeda on their heels, but for now, we still have a few bases there (an old high-school buddy is at Al Asad). As long as we are there, I don’t see them being overrun.

The most interesting (and newest map) posted on the wall is a “CircumPolar” map of the North Pole and surrounding countries. For openers, it shows just how close our Alaska, Canada and

Greenland are to Northern Russia. You won’t get that from your average Mercator map.

Why would I want that? Well, as we all know, our friend Mr. Putin is a bird-dog for natural resources and there are plenty to be found untapped underneath the polar cap. It should also be noted that Russia has 41 icebreakers to our three. And yes, many are armed. Just as China is determined to control the South China Sea, Mr. Putin wants to put a lock on the north pole and its mineral rights.

The nice story here is that I had been looking for a map like that for several months and was having no luck. Then, one evening late last year, my son paid me a visit in the office and asked me what I was working on. I explained my frustration at finding the appropriate map. He listened with interest then walked away. On Christmas morning, there was a big tube under the tree. I don’t know how he found it or where he found it, but he found it. A very nice gift.