There are a few things I find fascinating about the current war. First and foremost, it’s a war of attrition and apparently that never occurred to the pentagon command structure. One of the things that Europe learned pretty thoroughly before the Franco-Prussian War, is that an experienced command structure that knows how to communicate and plan is essential. Or so we would think.
Apparently the Iranians managed to tag an F-35.
I have wargamed war in the gulf a few times. And, as you know, I’m a fan of Millennium Challenge 2000. [stderr]
In various discussions about “what do we do with Venezuela?” we should not ignore that the people asking the question are representatives of a military superpower who took it upon itself to intervene in Venezuelan politics.
I’m not in favor of assassinations; I’m especially not fond of sloppy wet work.
This will (I hope!) take a while, and I’m not going to bother being scrupolous about the sources of my ideas. I will also be scrupulous, in the philosophical sense, of the origins of my ideas but out of pride in my education, and since – like everything else I leave on the Internet – it becomes part of my legacy.
Where are fossil fuels most useful? Here’s a hint: it’s one of the dumbest reasons you could possibly think of.
One of the problems of dealing with distant wars is force protection, the other is logistics. As Napoleon famously said, “amateurs argue about tactics, professionals about logistics.” That does not sound like a dictum from the loser at Waterloo or the retreat from Moscow.
We are simply not dealing with people who have enough knowledge or love of truth to try to figure out reality. Fantasy worlds tailored to people’s competence dysmorphia are so much nicer and easier than reality.
I’m a recovering gun nut. I guess. I always found guns to be another example of cool design and often superb machining, with the additional emotional charge of: explosions.