Re: [FT] Size of "Countries" in FT

G'day,

>	Fighting on Antartica does not look like fun. Heavy casulaties
just from
>the place let alone fighting. Does Beth have anything to say here.

Beth pulls head out of C++ with that vacant expression only research
student's can ever truly master. "Hey? What? Have I missed something
(again)?". She then huriedly goes and digs through remnants of Monday's
mail (which she dutifuly collects for hubbie, but never quite gets time
to
read), finds the thread and tries (vainly) to update herself - probably
getting it ass about as she goes along. She then returns and tries to
write
something that won't make her look like a complete moron :)

	First off, I'm not sure about Canada's holdings, but I do know
that
Australias is one of the biggest in the world due to our Antarctic,
island
and seafloor claims (none of which we could really defend beyond our
dreams). A few months ago it recently grew even larger due to the UN law
of
"you explore it and look after it for 3 continuous years you get it" and
we
now have more deep ocean polar seafloor then we know what to do with!
Basically our sea holdings are about 1.5 that of our land holdings at
last
count and there's a fair whack of unexploited (and currently
unexploitable)
resources in all that - bar the fish which everyone seems to poach
anyway :)

	As for fighting in Antarctica! Count me out!
	Seriously, I have a very minimal experience with the SG/DS end
of the GZG
universe so I'm probably going to open mouth and change feet here I
fear,
but I'd say that fighting in Antarctica would be a very seasonal and
exceedingly dangerous operation at any point in history. Based on the
weather I don't think you could fight effectively there in winter
(casualties due to exposure, no light, loss of orientation due to the
effects of gale force blizzards etc. would make sure your fighting force
got whittled down very fast) - then again I guess someone's going to
point
to a war fought in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere at this
junction. May be a well trained unit landed during late autumn could use
the bad weather over winter to aid an attack if their sensor etc.
technology was a lot more advanced then now (have to keep track of
yourself, your unit, your location, sudden changes in the physical
surroundings etc.) and if the other side didn't have a matching force
down
there or within reach (I'd say the defender had the advantage off the
bat
so you'd have to make sure the attacking force was streets ahead in
everything else). Fighting in summer wouldn't be a picnic either - ice
shelf movements, ozone hole stripping off the skin, snow blindness,
still
freezing weather, continued problem of isolation and no cover of
darkness
to name just a few blindingly obvious snares. As for the actual
equipment
required, I don't pretend to know a lot about grav vechiles etc., but if
I
had to invade I'd take at least some huskies as by all reports (based on
present day equipment) they're less apt to breakdown/cause ice bridges
to
collapse and they can apparently sense when the ice is about to give
way.
And as for actually landing a force, its going to be difficult to do
safely
without being spotted. Ships would have to crunch their way in, planes
have
to land at least a little way inland as they set-up waves in the ice
which
could splinter the whole area if they're too close to the edge - not to
mention tell anyone with 50 km (I think that's what the minimum distance
was) that you've arrived.
	As for the fate of Antarctica within the GZG universe, well I'm
still
working out the finer points. Basically though, "nationalistic face"
based
international conservation (as in "our conservation is as good as
yours")
made sure the scientists had free reign for longer than would otherwise
have been the case. Eventually though the major powers turned to
military
matters and as their attention shifted the mining companies sent in
mercs.,Half a decade later the IAS had metamorphosed from a scientific
organisation (to do with antarctic studies) into a nation of its own -
they
then returned to Antarctica and kicked the miners and their mercs out
(more
by getting themselves employed as essential personnel and then locking
the
doors). Even then the recognition of the IAS's existence as a nation had
a
lot more to do with the fact they'd also made themselves indispensible
to
the earlier exploration missions as scientists and engineers (a niche
they
continued to exploit from that point forward).

I'm not sure if any of that was what you're after or on thread, but I
hope
it helped.

Cheers

Beth

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Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
HOBART 
TASMANIA 7001
AUSTRALIA
Phone (03) 6232 5018 International +61 3 6232 5018
Fax (03) 6232 5199 International +61 3 6232 5199

email: beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au