war

The Man In a White Corolla

A group of archeologists discovers the rambling diary of a tortured soul slowly going mad. There’s no consistent logic, coherent meaning, or even an apparent chronological order to the bizarre episodes scrawled across the tattered book’s pages. But nonetheless, the engrossed readers can’t help but digest the entire manifesto cover to cover. Now the unhinged protagonist is in uniform, sent away to a faraway war zone. Where this war happened, assuming it happened at all, the madman doesn’t say. But he does describe at length what had started as a boring overnight watch.

Martin van Creveld: Our armies become pussycats, part 2

Summary:  In this second post about the real revolution in military affairs, Martin van Creveld examines why men fight. Rather than the conventional political and geopolitical factors, he looks at the psychology of excellence, honor, spirituality, and PTSD. It’s worth some thought as we begin the second round of our long war.  See part one …

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Martin van Creveld: Our armies become pussycats, part 1

Summary:  The revolution in military affairs continues, silently and invisibly. Our hardware-obsessed military and its fanboys see only tools while the nature of war itself evolves. Previous posts looked at the increased role of women and children. Here Martin van Creveld looks at another fundamental change.   Pussycats – Part I By Martin van Creveld …

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A great sociologist explains the logic of our wars: “crackpot realism”

Summary: Every day brings forth a new tide of analysis about events. Yet world dynamics change only slowly, and instead of new clickbait we should look at old insights that we have not learned. Such as this explanation of US grand strategy by the late great sociologist C. Wright Mills: the “crackpot realism” of our …

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