An American tourist in Russia
This is a map of the Battle of the Somme in the summer of 1916. Over 18 weeks, French and British forces advanced 10 kilometers capturing a little over 300 square kilometers. In total, this brief conflict on a small battlefield killed or wounded more than a million men. From this we can make some … Read more
So there is this idea, based on exactly nothing, that western troops are better than Ukrainian troops. There is also this idea that American logistics are the best in the world, “We can set up a Burger King anywhere in 24 hours.” So why would supplying 1 million NATO troops be different than supplying 1 … Read more
This week the Associated Press openly stated something that most of us have known for a while. That Biden administration is pressuring Ukraine to lower the conscription age to 18. This is the usual life cycle of facts from Ukraine. Facts are initially dismissed as “Kremlin talking points” for 6 to 12 months, then they’re … Read more
The rewriting of history continues. Afghanistan is the latest case of “the USA could have easily won but we just chose not to.” Is that really true though? In my first deployment there in 2009 to Camp Bastion there were still largescale combat operations and had enthusiastic participation by most ISAF members. I would not … Read more
Last night I read Mumu, an 1852 short story by Ivan Turgenev. If you are not already familiar with Mumu, I would like you to read it first, and there is an English translation available here. As I said, it is short, only 22 pages. If you really don’t want to take my word for … Read more