StratFor report with implications for American recovery

[Adm.Lee]

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/201...vitable-empireHere's an interesting geopolitical analysis of America. A key point is that the navigability of the Mississippi River and its tributaries are a tremendous natural advantage to whomever lives there.

To my mind, it reinforces the idea that a key goal for Milgov/Civgov in 2001 should be securing the Mississippi watershed. IMO, send at least half of the returning OMEGA forces around to the new mouth of the Mississippi, and send most of the rest over the Alleghenies from Norfolk to Pittsburgh.

Tiny piece of family history: Shortly after the American Revolution, one of my ancestors moved to southwestern Pennsylvania. For several years, after harvest he would carry his crop (and his neighbors') by flatboat down the Ohio and Mississippi to sell them (and the boat) at New Orleans. He'd then get on a ship to Philadelphia, use most of the cash for whatever tools and things his neighbors had asked for, and then carry it back over the mountains by pack-horse. I can't imagine he did it alone, but he made this trip more than once. It had to have taken weeks, and it was not safe. The north bank of the Ohio and some of the Mississippi were still Indian country, and there were pirates/bandits on the rivers. New Orleans was still a Spanish (then French) port at that time.