Military History, Book Reviews, and Other Things

Category Contemporary Security & Statecraft

Structural evaluations of active geopolitical realignments, modern defense procurement, and ongoing international conflicts. These analyses apply established military theory to present-day diplomatic maneuvering and asymmetric security developments.

Just a fun story from Vietnam (yes, there were a few)

 FNG meets Lady Hooker  As much tension, tragedy and mayhem as the war provided it gave a group of crude, vulgar young pilots a fair amount of fun, too. The officer’s club was the hub of our hormonally driven behavior…. Continue Reading →

Obama: Nuclear deal blocks Iran’s path to bomb In an ironic twist showing that the 60+ years since World War II have only fostered institutional amnesia the US and five other powers buckled and agreed to appease Iran in talks… Continue Reading →

Remember Those who Served both Today and all through the Year

The following is an excerpt from The Sky Behind Me: A Memoir of Flying & Life. Taken from chapter 14, this piece is dedicated to my fellow veterans, of Vietnam and all wars Americans have been involved in through the… Continue Reading →

When the Tigers Broke Free – Rape in World War Two

I am afraid that the top side is not completely satisfied with my work… They are naturally disappointed that I failed to chase the Hun out of Italy but there was no military reason why I should have been able… Continue Reading →

The best descriptive term I have yet heard for the President’s proposed attack on Syria is Nanoassault.  It best describes the comedic effect of what we are now watching vis-a-vis Syria and chemical weapons.

Book Review: The Great Degeneration by Niall Ferguson

If there is one book in the realm of history or political science any informed person needs to read this year then Niall Ferguson’s The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die is it. In this short book Ferguson… Continue Reading →

Ft Hood Shooter Trial starts Tuesday- It’s about damn time

The Court-Martial of Fort Hood Shooter Nidal Hasan (left) is set to start on Tuesday almost four years after the 5 November, 2009 rampage at the Fort Hood Deployment Readiness Center that left 13 people dead and over 30 wounded.  He… Continue Reading →

Murder in Iraq

This is kind of an amusing story, unless of course you are the guy that got killed.  When I was deployed to Iraq in 2004 with C Troop 1/4 Cav we had a platoon of National Guard soldiers assigned to… Continue Reading →

Support the Syrian Rebels?: How stupid can the West be?

 Video shows Islamist rebels executing 11 Syrian soldiers:  Yet for some unfathomable reason the Administration is talking about providing support to the rebel groups in Syria.  The video is below (Warning, it is graphic). After watching just contemplate that these… Continue Reading →

“Middle War”: The new normal going forward

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has just released Beyond the Last War: Balancing Ground Forces and Future Challenges Risk in USCENTCOM and USPACOM.  The report makes for interesting reading.  What I found the most interesting aside from the scenarios considered… Continue Reading →

Politics and Discourse

I try to not have my blog be political but sometimes I digress and this post is one of those times.  I have made it no secret that I am politically conservative.  I don’t think I am rabidly conservative but… Continue Reading →

Margaret Thatcher Passes away

Margaret Thatcher  the famous Iron Lady of 1980’s Britain and only female Prime Minister in English History has passed away in London from an apparent stroke.  She will be remembered as one of the most effective Prime Ministers in British history.  Not least among her accomplishments… Continue Reading →

Similarities Between the 1920’s and Today?

I am currently reading The Origins of the First World War (3rd Edition), during a pause in my reading I started thinking about not the origins of WWI but its results.  To say that the peace of Versailles was flawed… Continue Reading →

Deutsche Telekom’s hacker tracker

Deutsche Telekom has website they recently put up that has a live “radar” like view of where the most hacker attacks in the world are coming from.  It is at their Overview of current cyber attacks.  If anybody thinks that the internet… Continue Reading →

Book Review: Ethical Chic by Fran Hawthorne

I picked up Ethical Chic: The Inside Story of the Companies We Think We Love by Fran Hawthorne at my local library because I figured the book would be good for a laugh.  I was not wrong.  I was also treated to… Continue Reading →

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