Reading Putin’s mind
[NOTE: I don’t usually post on Sundays, but so much is happening that I thought I’d just put up a brief one and start a new thread that way. So here it is.] Wish I was a mind reader, but … Continue reading →
Category Archives: War and Peace
How’s Putin’s war going?
First, a general caveat: we have the fog of war, so there’s no reason to trust any reports. But still, there’s a general drift, and it may be correct. The general drift is that Putin is surprised that the Ukrainians … Continue reading →
Putin’s worldview
A lot of people figured that Putin’s stated intentions weren’t really his stated intentions, and are belatedly realizing that apparently he meant what he said. So it might be a good idea to familiarize yourself with what he’s been saying … Continue reading →
Random thoughts on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
(1) For sanctions to work, they should not necessarily be considered a deterrence or a punishment. I suppose they would be a deterrence if the leader or leaders involved could be deterred that easily, but that sort of leader isn’t … Continue reading →
The invasion of Ukraine: who’s Putin’s puppet now?
When Obama was elected I suspected that I knew what we were in for concerning foreign policy: withdrawing from Iraq, empowering Iran, weakening our military, and general movement towards the leftist position. When Trump was elected, I was worried that … Continue reading →
On Biden’s weakness: Putin isn’t Corn Pop
The money angle on Putin and Ukraine: Before Biden became President, the U.S. was energy independent and an exporter of energy. [Biden lowered] American production and remov[ed] Trump’s restrictions on the Nordstream natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. His … Continue reading →
Maus
[NOTE: The topic of the two-volume graphic novel Maus came up in a recent thread, and I’ve decided to republish a review that I first wrote in 2009. So here it is.] I recently reread the two-volume graphic novel Maus, … Continue reading →
The 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbor
[NOTE: This is a somewhat-edited version of a previous post.] Today is the eightieth anniversary of the December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. The generation that reacted to it by mobilizing and fighting World War II is on its last … Continue reading →
Melanie Phillips: on the desire to end “forever wars”
This piece by Melanie Phillips packs a lot into a fairly short essay. Phillips is a British writer who is a former liberal and who is not the least bit “woke” in her opinions. I believe she is spot on … Continue reading →
Looking back: predictions about our Afghanistan withdrawal
I’m not sure many of us were paying a whole lot of attention to what was being said about our withdrawal from Afghanistan before it occurred, but I think it’s instructive to look back and see what people in government … Continue reading →
So the Woodward allegations about General Milley and China were true
John Hinderaker explains here: Now, based on this statement by Joint Staff Spokesperson Col. Dave Butler, it appears that Woodward’s reporting is, shockingly, accurate. Col. Butler’s statement was issued in response to Woodward’s report and the firestorm of controversy that … Continue reading →
What’s happening in Afghanistan?
To a certain extent, when the Vietnam-era draft ended people lost interest in news of Vietnam. There was a flurry of renewed attention when we finally left and then cut off most of the military aid years later, including the … Continue reading →