A short excerpt from a Victor Davis Hanson article

There is a new strange mood of acceptance among Americans about the world beyond our shores. Of course, we are not becoming naïve isolationists of 1930s vintage, who believe that we are safe by ourselves inside fortress America — not after September 11. Nor do citizens deny that America has military and moral obligations to stay engaged abroad — at least for a while yet…In fact, an American consensus is growing that envy and hatred of the United States, coupled with utopian and pacifistic rhetoric, disguise an even more depressing fact: Outside our shores there is a growing barbarism with no other sheriff in sight…All this … has desensitized Americans, left and right, liberal and conservative. We will finish the job in Iraq, nursemaid democratic Afghanistan through its birthpangs, and continue to ensure that bandits and criminal states stay off the world’s streets. But what is new is that the disenchanted American is becoming savvy and developing a long memory — and so we all fear the day is coming when he casts aside the badge, rides the buckboard out of town, and leaves such sanctimonious folk to themselves.

Bismarck was quoted as saying the Balkans “were not even worth the healthy bones of a single Pomeranian musketeer.” Maybe the Bihar kind of innovative, low-impact sheriffing is what we need. Today Bihar, tomorrow ???:

India’s cash for criminals programme
By Amarnath Tewary
Patna, Bihar state

Over 190 criminals have surrendered. The government in India’s most lawless state, Bihar, has come up with a new approach to crime. It is paying criminals to surrender and give up their weapons.

A murder takes place every two hours, a rape is committed every six and a bank is looted every day in Bihar, according to police records.

Now a desperate state government is offering 10,000 rupees ($222) to every criminal to turn themselves in.

It is also offering a monthly ‘income’ of 3,000 rupees ($66) to every criminal who surrenders.

The government’s compensation rates for arms depend on the type of weapon given up:

25,000 rupees ($555) for a rocket launcher, light machine gun or a rifle
15,000 rupees ($333) for AK-47 guns
3,000 rupees ($66) for pistols, revolvers, and old rifles… So far 191 criminals have already surrendered for cash in the districts of Supaul and Madhepura in the presence of Bihar’s new chief minister, Nitish Kumar…The government, however, says the cash-for-criminals scheme is part of a larger plan to rehabilitate criminals.

Bihar’s additional director general of police Abhyanand told the BBC that the state had earmarked 200,000 rupees ($4,444) as a “rehabilitation package” for every criminal who surrendered.

Bihar is India’s kidnapping ‘capital’
The government will pay a quarter of this money, while the remaining will come in “easy bank loans” to criminals, he says.

It also says the money will be deposited in a bank account held jointly with a family member of the surrendered criminal, and there will be a cap on the maximum withdrawal every month.

The government says it also plans to pay for the primary education of the children of the surrendering criminals.

Observers wonder whether such a scheme would encourage people to take to crime, and then surrender for the lucre.

Police chief Abhyanand says the government will be carefully screening the criminals who surrender to avoid such an eventuality.

“And remember, the surrendering criminals still have to face the courts.”

I relied on an Atlantic article written by Robert D. Kaplan. “The whole of the Balkans,” Bismarck said sagely, “is not worth the healthy bones of a single Pomeranian musketeer.”

I googled “bismarck bones of pomeranian musketeer.” The Kaplan article is the fifth. If the “quote” does not appear in the writings of Bismarck, I would not be surprised that there is disagreement over what he said. If you google “bismarck bones of pomeranian grenadier,” you will get 604 hits.

Catholicguage? Who’s Catholicguage?

-Catholicgauze