Most people in the U.S. only became very aware of Afghanistan after we entered into conflict within its boarders. That conflict, which became known as “Operation Enduring Freedom” or, the “O.E.F.” for short, seems to have spawned a lot of misconceptions about the country, its people and the prosecution of asymmetric warfare in general. I am convinced that understanding the nature of the country and our current conflict is crucial to the education of every American, regardless of their position in politics. If one lacks understanding, one is at the mercy of any politician or activist who wishes to lie. “Knowing is half the battle” as our G.I. Joe friends would say.
Here are a few of the most common myths associated with the cross roads of South-Asia.

Afghanistan has never been successfully occupied by a force of invasion.
This myth seems to be derived from the Soviet conflict of the 80’s. People who recall that conflict seem to make the assumption that if the might of the Soviet empire was repelled, then no army could withstand the hardened people and extreme weather and terrain of Afghanistan. In reality, Afghanistan has frequently been the subject of war and occupation even before its borders were officially defined in the 19th century. The most notable occupations were the invasions of the Mongols From roughly 1200 to 1500 AD, British and Russian influences over the country during the ‘great game’ of the 19th century and, of course, the conquest by various islamic groups whose influence can still be seen today. As a digression into the cultural trends of the country, centuries of war and occupation by external powers has created a general wariness of foreigners in the people of Afghanistan. This attitude is more prevalent among the most remote tribes but exists to some extent among the majority of the nation’s populace.

The U.S. Armed the Taliban and Bin Laden during the 80’s
The proximity of both the Taliban and Bin Laden to the Soviet conflict tend to fuel this myth. The truth is somewhat more interesting in my opinion. Firstly, the Taliban did not exist during the Soviet invasion, the group the U.S. Armed was the Mujhadieen. The Mujhadieen was a loose association of resistance factions and Afghani war lords with almost no centralized command and control structure. The decentralized nature of the Mujhadieen enhanced its effectiveness against the Soviet armies (who lacked experience fighting an asymmetric enemy on a large scale) but ultimately lead to conflict within its ranks. After the Soviet withdrawal, the Mujhadieen war lords began to fight amongst themselves for control of the country. As civil war broke out, the Taliban formed out of populace anger over the warlord fighting. The Taliban consisted of the most radical religious members in the country, its reign was marked by inhuman acts of violence such as genocide. Though the Taliban may have had control of some of the remnant weapons and equipment supplied by the U.S., the U.S. never directly aided the group.
The same myth about Bin Laden is more discernibly false. Bin Laden never belonged to the Mujhadieen. He instead belonged to the group known as the Maktab al-Kihdamat. Bin Laden’s philosophy was that the islamic world did not need the influence of the west to repel any invader. His group saw the invasion as an attack against islam and served to funnel in foreign jihad fighters and muslim finances into Afghanistan. Though the Maktab al-Kihdamat did take money from western sources, Bin Laden was never directly funded by any western country. He relied on his large inheritance to fund his resistance. Eventually, Bin laden would take some of the more radical members of the group to form Al-Qaeda, who’s philosophy concerning non-islamic entities reflected his own. (Their stated goal being to remove non-islamic powers from the “islamic lands” and to spread the reign of islam.)

No force of invasion has ever defeated a determined, insurgent resistance.

Warning: Angry editorial ranting to follow.
I cannot stand to hear this myth. It is incredibly ignorant. This particular myth actually inspired the writing on this subject. I was watching the Simpson when the character Lisa Simpson starts talking about the futility of fighting an insurgency. Remember in the opening paragraph when I said that ignorance on a subject can lead to your manipulation by an unscrupulous activist? This would be one of those times. The said thing is, plenty of people would here this joke and believe it. There are hundreds of examples of insurgencies failing. Insurgents usually lose their fights. Most notably because they are more poorly equipped and trained than their adversaries. Want a few examples? The Bay of Pigs , The U.S. Civil war, the Warsaw uprisings of WWII, Efforts for Indian independence from Britain in the 1940’s, various Native American uprisings. I could go on. Determined insurgencies have been defeated plenty of times. Just because you have a regional influence on a population does not necessarily mean you have a greater chance of wining.

So there you go. Three common myths about Afghanistan and insurgent fighting. I hoped you learned something. For instance, never take strategic military advice from the Simpsons. That is a life lesson that I think applies to us all.

Welcome to the first edition of Sonic Saturdays, a weekly segment where I take on the task of reviewing a Sonic game as objectively as possible. It’s something that is rarely done by anyone, as most reviews are either blatant love letters by blind fanboys or blatant hate by ignorant fanboys. Note that I do not claim complete objectivity, as such a thing is impossible. Remember going into this review that I am an admitted Sonic fan, but also take into account that I am a very critical gamer in general.

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity for the Wii is our first subject. This game got a lot of undeserved flack from the reviewers, and I’ll start by explaining the main criticisms of the game from the mainstream critics. First off, the game was marked down because it was ten dollars more expensive than the Playstation 2 version of the game at launch. Second, the Wii Remote control configuration is essentially useless. But a Gamecube controller gets the job done rather nicely, so don’t worry too much about that. Finally, the game is simply difficult. I think that when people pick up a Sonic game, they expect something that their children will be able to breeze through. Zero Gravity is not such a game. Zero Gravity is a game that requires you to practice in order to win.

So, let’s get down to the actual review of the game.

The basic concept has Sonic and his friends riding hoverboards (and some other crazy vehicles; I won’t spoil it), using power-ups, performing tricks, and generally having a good time. There’s a storyline involving rampaging robots and rivalries, but really, who cares about a story in a racing game? To sum it up, you have two groups: the Heroes and the Babylon Rogues. The Heroes, predictably, consist of Sonic and friends. The Babylon Rogues are made up of Sonic’s rival from the first Riders title, Jet the Hawk and his crew. Both groups are investigating the crash of a meteor for their own reasons, and it turns out Dr. Robotnik is doing dastardly things again. The meteor turns out to be an Ark of the Cosmos, which is very mystical and not at all a reference to the Ark of the Covenant. There are many such Arks referenced in the story, and they’re essentially power sources. Robotnik wants them for evil, Sonic wants them for good, and Jet wants them to help him beat Sonic. The story isn’t very complex, but it’s actually not bad considering the storytelling standards of the genre. To give you an idea, I followed the story fairly closely as I played it the first time, but now I skip it. Neither a highlight nor lowpoint for the game.

Sonic, Tails Knuckles, Jet, Storm, and Wave are the story mode characters. In other modes, there are a lot more characters including [spoilers follow] Amy, Big the Cat, Rouge, Cream, Shadow, Robotnik, NiGHTS, Amigo, Super Sonic, Billy Hatcher, and Blaze among others. [end spoilers]. Some are available from the start and some will have to be unlocked.

New gameplay modes are the survival games. Basic survival mode is equivalent to battle mode in Mario Kart. You get missiles, you shoot them, and you hit the other people to win. Survival relay is a relay race. Not too complicated. Survival ball is essentially a game of soccer. All of these modes are pretty fun when you’re playing with other people, but since this is a racer, they’re hardly the focus. They definitely add to the overall value of the title.

There are 18 different characters (plus Super Sonic, who has every ability), and three types of “gear” for them. The gear essentially determines character class (speed/power/flying), so there are six characters per class. Depending upon what course you take, each class has advantages and disadvantages. There are shortcuts in every course designed to benefit one specific class, so you can’t play through the single player efficiently with only one character. Accompanying this are 16 total tracks and a very advanced upgrade system. By collecting predetermined amounts of rings in-game, you can activate an upgrade during the race. Upgrades range from simple aesthetic changes to new transformations and abilities to a bigger Point Gauge.

The point gauge determines how much Gravity Power you have. Gravity Power allows you to do many fancy things, such as altering the stage’s gravity (so you can race on walls or ceilings), providing massive speed boosts, destroying obstacles in front of you, and drifting around corners. The item boxes in the game contain things like missiles, rings, gravity points, speed boosts, speed hindrances (literally a ball and chain), and other such things.

As you’ve probably gathered, this game is a hell of a lot deeper than one might think by looking at the box. If you want to be good at it, you have to master all of the gravity controls. And therein lies the major criticism with this game. A lot of people don’t want to practice and learn.

Like I mentioned earlier, the motion controls are basically useless. But with a Gamecube controller, you’re good to go. You can also use the Wii Remote sideways, akin to an NES controller, and that’s the middle-ground control method. The controls with the Gamecube controller are generally snappy and responsive, but taking sharp corners IS difficult without learning the gravity drift. So a lot of people simply decided that it wasn’t worth the time and quit. The gravity drift is hard to get the hang of, but it becomes second nature after awhile. The initial difficulty in sharp cornering is by far the single biggest issue with this game, but once you get through it everything is worth it.

If I had to compare this game to any other ones, it’d be F-Zero GX for Gamecube, and not Mario Kart like many people seem to like doing. This game is not a Mario Kart clone. This game is a hardcore arcade racer that requires practice and strategy.

The single player mode is worth playing through for sure, because there is a huge selection of unlockables to chase down and the gameplay is fun. But as you might imagine, the multiplayer is where it shines.

In typical Sonic fashion, the soundtrack is a highlight. I don’t think I have to go into much detail here. There are cheesy (read: awesome) metal songs, original compositions, and some classic Sonic tunes mixed in there. If you’ve heard the soundtrack to Heroes or Adventure 2, you’ll know what to expect.

The game looks very good on the Wii. It’s nothing amazing, but the colors are vibrant, the motion blur is nice, the frame rate is solid, the animation is good, and the texture work is serviceable. I’d put it in the top five or ten percent of all Wii games in terms of overall visual appeal.

If you like F-Zero GX, have a Gamecube controller, and some friends to play with I’d highly recommend this game. If you don’t want to practice at it and don’t have a Gamecube controller, don’t buy it. It’s a very cheap game at the moment, so if you’re looking for a Wii game and don’t want to take a risk with a fifty dollar purchase this one is a good way to go.

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity will not “wow” you. It will not redefine the way you look at video games. But it is a game that looks good, sounds good, and controls well (for the most part). It has a lot of content, a lot of depth, and some genuinely original gameplay mechanics.

Final score: 7.7 out of a possible 10.

On my scale, 5/10 is average, so anything above a 6 or so is a quality game by my standards. When this game came out, I paid full price for it. I’d gladly pay that much for it even right now, but considering it’s only $7.99 used on Amazon, it’s a steal.