BALOGNASTAND

Or you could spell it Balochistan. One of the many stans, but no relation to Stan Freburg. Located between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

I never heard of the place until it suddenly reared it’s head and said “I quit” and split off from Pakistan yesterday, taking about half of Pakistan with it. The story is that the Pakis stole Balochistan about the same time they stole a chunk of Kashmir. Annexed them both whether they wanted to be annexed or not, which they didn’t.

They’ve been fighting a guerilla war with Pakistan for years, and finally grew strong enough to declare their independence, no doubt taking advantage of the war brewing between Pakistan and India.

So now the Pakis have two fights to deal with instead of one, and the Chinese are demanding repayment of a pretty massive debt owed them by Pakistan for all the infrastructure they built there because the Chinese are in a deepening hole of their own, economically.

Balochistan is about the size of Germany. Why is it always these little nations that fire off the big wars? I’ve got a “here we go again” feeling about this.