Author: Anne Brown

Sorry to mix metaphors and cultural traditions. Yes, Kabuki is Japanese in origin but the Kabuki dance now playing out between Beijing and Washington is an apt description of the political posturing each side is performing. Apart from the complaints from both Chinese leaders and U.S. politicians in which each side blames the other for the outbreak and spread of Corona, there is a curious mix of posturing and actions that are sending mixed messages and clouding the simple, horrible truth–the global spread of Corona 19 was a deliberate, conscious act by the Chinese Communist government to weaken the West,…

The Biden Administration stands on the threshold of launching America into a war with Russia that we will lose. Most Americans have swallowed the propaganda that our military is the best in the world and head and shoulders above Russia and can easily handle Putin’s forces. But our military is more like the now retired Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman–well dressed, well decorated, fat and soft. Yes, we have some remarkable capabilities and some very brave, capable men and women. But the risks of getting into combat with Russian forces who are fighting on their home turf are enormous. Here is…

(a) The term “person” includes an individual, partnership, association, corporation, organization, or any other combination of individuals; (b) The term “foreign principal” includes– (1) a government of a foreign country and a foreign political party; (2) a person outside of the United States, unless it is established that such person is an individual and a citizen of and domiciled within the United States, or that such person is not an individual and is organized under or created by the laws of the United States or of any State or other place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and…

The man in the picture may be a Saudi. Or may not. The point is larger than any individual. I have had a great deal to do with that country. Three years as Defense and Army attaché in the US Embassy, with the status of Counselor of the Embassy. Many, many visits since in various capacities. I cannot say I ever liked the place, and I share that sentiment with many Muslims who are not subjects of the Saudi state. I was lucky when I lived there that, even as a Christian, my diplomatic status protected me. In spite of…

Ukraine’s early-October 2022 push in northern Kherson didn’t look dramatic day to day—at least not in the way people imagine a “breakthrough” across wide, flat farmland should look. But that calm surface hid a fight that was anything but static. What unfolded was the payoff from weeks of reconnaissance, interdiction, electronic warfare, and a grinding effort to strip Russian units of the basics: ammunition, fuel, and reliable communications. The key point is that this operation was not simply a replay of the late-August effort in the same general area. The direction of attack may have been familiar, but the preparation…

Sounds to me like either this fellow was acting for one of the Russian intelligence services in his sales program, or maybe they don’t want him back at all. I’d bet on the former. Let’s walk through the bones of it. Viktor Bout—the “Merchant of Death,” the man who supposedly armed every conflict on earth, the inspiration for a Hollywood movie—sits in an American prison serving 25 years. And Moscow, officially, wants him home. They call his trial political. They’ve added American officials to visa blacklists over his case. They make noise. But here’s the question that doesn’t get asked…

Read three Russian war bloggers this week and you’ll learn more about the state of this war than a month of Pentagon briefings. Not because they know more—though some of them do—but because they’ve stopped pretending. The HIMARS system has done something interesting to the Russian information space. It’s cracked the facade. Let me walk you through what these men are saying, because their words tell a story that Moscow would prefer you not hear. The first one, writing from somewhere near the fighting, describes missile strikes in Kherson at five in the morning and again at ten. The Novokakhovska…

Let me walk you through what Ukraine is about to receive, because the numbers tell a story that the Kremlin does not want its people to hear. The United States has two multiple launch rocket systems that matter in this war: the M270 MLRS and the M142 HIMARS. Both have a crew of three. Both fire the same missiles. Both can compute their own fire missions without relying on a distant headquarters to do the math. They are self-contained killing machines. The M142 HIMARS exists in one version. The M270 comes in three, but only one matters for Ukraine: the…

The poet Wilfred Owen, killed on the Western Front seven days before the armistice, wrote words that still cut to the bone: “For 14 hours yesterday, I was at work—teaching Christ to lift his cross by the numbers, and how to adjust his crown; and not to imagine he thirst until after the last halt.” He was describing the work of turning men into soldiers, of preparing them for the crucifixion that awaited. He knew what he was talking about. He died in the mud, at twenty-five, his poetry still in his pocket. There are those who recoil from the…

The question itself is a provocation, but a useful one. Lenin or Trotsky? The revolutionary who built the apparatus or the revolutionary who wanted to set the world on fire? Lenin was the architect. Cold, calculating, patient. He understood that revolution required structure, discipline, the ruthless application of power through a vanguard party that would brook no opposition. He believed in seizing the state and using it to crush the old order completely before building something new. No half measures. No compromises. The ends justified any means, and the ends were total control. Trotsky was the firebrand. Permanent revolution. The…