The Distribution of Deterrence
If you maintain a fixed speed of 100 kilometers per hour while driving on the section of the highway that passes by the military base, you'll be bored for twelve minutes while traveling the twenty-kilometer straightaway that crosses that installation. It'll seem like it took you more than half an hour. You'll feel threatened by a bunch of little white signs with red letters attached to the electric fence warning "military installation" and "no entry." That's why everyone presses the accelerator to the floor when reach that point.
That's what I used to do on my way to and from my office in the city Monday through Friday until one unfortunate morning my engine died and I was stranded on the side of the highway watching cars go by at over 200 kilometers per hour.
The ambassador of the Northern Bloc of Countries (NBC) always opposed the highway, but the local authorities won, and the old road was left for those who live along its route, saving the rest of us a ton of curves and minutes.
After an hour of waiting for help, a tow truck, or a patrol car, I started to get scared because my dad worked as a military contractor for over thirty years, and I know it's very normal for them to assume that if something is explicitly prohibited, it will never happen.
The civilians had won, but the military still owned the land on both sides of the highway, and it was prohibited to be there because it was public knowledge that the entire area was a military installation, complete with a highway.
Of course, in that entire area, there is no coverage from any civilian company providing communications services, and on the GPS and digital maps, that area is gray because, in addition to being military, this installation is secret.
The distribution of deterrence is the concept that must be understood well to understand my situation.
If two blocs are vying for control of the World Organization of Countries (WOC), then they won't have their weapons of mass destruction concentrated only in their leading country because it's clear that concentrating deterrence capability means grouping together the targets offered to the adversary in a preemptive surprise attack. So the blocs have distributed their strategic weapons among their affiliated countries and some of the independent countries that have not yet achieved the status of member countries with the right to vote in decisions, and my country, which is neutral, independent, and sovereign according to the current national constitution, has approved, after a plebiscite, an accession to the NBC as an Associated Sympathizing State (ASS) for market access reasons.
So there I was less than ten kilometers from machines designed to kill millions of people, watching cars go by at over two hundred kilometers per hour, waiting for someone on the base's surveillance systems to think of investigating what I was doing with my head stuck under the engine cover of my car.
The main problem with military bases abroad is precisely the foreign military personnel. They are young, warriors, they are defending their bloc of countries abroad, they are far from their families and homes in uncomfortable, often unhealthy and even hostile places, many times they do not like the climate, the culture, the language, the geography, or the race of the people of the country to which they have been deployed. They must necessarily be paid more to compensate for their discomfort and homesickness and try to make them feel at home.
At least those with the highest ranks can have their families nearby. On average, maintaining troops abroad is four times more expensive than in their home countries. No one should be surprised that military bases abroad are automated and the number of humans operating them is minimal.
Have you played any sport on artificial turf? Call me old-fashioned, but I don't think it's the same as playing on natural grass. An artificial turf court looks like a pool table surface; it's homogeneous and has no holes. It's harder to pull out artificial grass than natural grass, but it's not the same. I don't know. I feel strange when I step on artificial grass.
Imagine a mini-golf course but with miles and miles of green artificial turf and plastic trees because it's very expensive to bring in gardeners from the NBC, and the natives aren't even trustworthy as gardeners.
The only thing that approached me from behind the fence was a gardening bot that was washing the plastic turf. I tried to get my Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) to communicate with it, but it couldn't. I don't have the necessary access level. In fact, I'm a risk to the entire facility.
I've seen people asking the security guards at the state offices for help, and I know that not only do they lack much knowledge of the procedures, but they're also not authorized to give them information, and that the guards' primary function is to protect employees, information, and state facilities, specifically from the public.
The idea of enduring interrogation by a perimeter surveillance bot didn't appeal to me.
I'd read somewhere that the best thing to do in these cases is to stay close to your vehicle, but I got bored and started walking. Ten kilometers really isn't much for a walk, and the thought of a cold drink at the gas station gave me momentum. It really wasn't a bother; I was heading to the gym to burn fat half an hour before dinner at home.
Someone next to a crashed vehicle on a highway is screaming for help, and that message is received by those who happen to be passing by in a hurry, and most don't have the time, the resources to help, or the desire to take risks.
Once, I thought I recognized a neighbor and stopped to help. It turned out to be an Einstein-Schwarzenegger-Dali model named Valentino who needed his car's automatic navigation system adjusted. When he saw me, he signaled me to leave. I didn't understand, and then he was forced to explain the fault to me for five boring minutes in almost Freudian terms (I don't know what's wrong with him today; he must be feeling some kind of with the laurel wreath,
Continued
Li Tao Po
VABM 1/Apr/2025
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