Despite that very-important-sounding title, I’m not going to do a full analysis of Trump’s recent comments about our nuclear arsenal—and the varied reactions to it and interpretations of it—because I think his remarks (mostly in the form of tweets) resemble … Continue reading →
Today is the seventy-fifth 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 legs. But they were the ones we still call “the … Continue reading →
It can be boiled down to reverse the Obama doctrine*. Totten doesn’t say that—not exactly, anyway. But his final paragraph indicates it: All this advice is based on one simple principle””you reward your friends and punish your enemies. It’s the … Continue reading →
[NOTE: This is a repeat of a previous post.] Yes, indeed, I am that old—old enough to just barely remember when Veterans Day was called Armistice Day. The change in names occurred in 1954, when I was very small, in … Continue reading →
Interesting: By a razor-thin margin of less than half a percentage point, Colombian voters narrowly rejected a proposed peace plan that would have formally ended the longest-running war in the Western Hemisphere. Almost everyone thought the referendum would pass… For … Continue reading →
Listening to many commentators on the cable news stations last night talking about the terrorist attack in Nice, I kept hearing the phrases: “We’re at war.” “This is World War III.” “This is war.” My reaction was, “Where’ve you been … Continue reading →
Every now and then I’ve offered excerpts from the fascinating WWII-era memoirs of Victor Klemperer (see this for one of them, as well as an explanation of who Klemperer was). The following quotes are from his I Will Bear Witness: … Continue reading →
ISIL (ISIS) is seeking nuclear material in order to use it against you-know-who: Isil terrorists are planning to use drones to spray nuclear material over Western cities in a horrific “dirty bomb” attack, [British Prime Minister] David Cameron has warned. … Continue reading →
I think there’s something to this theory about Hitler, as described in an interview with Timothy Snyder, author of a recent book on Hitler, the Holocaust, and WWII (I haven’t read the book, by the way). I don’t completely buy … Continue reading →
Maybe yes, maybe no; North Korea’s claims of testing an H-bomb are doubted, but might be true. “We have consistently made clear that we will not accept [North Korea] as a nuclear state,” said a spokesman for the National Security … Continue reading →
Donald Trump dominates the news cycle again. Of all the outrageous statements he’s made in the past, his call for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is … Continue reading →
In ancient history and the sack of Rome, lessons for today: Writing from the vantage point of the eighteenth century, Gibbon did not go into extensive detail of the Vandal assault, except to note that the Romans willingly opened their … Continue reading →