Author: editor11122

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…

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 old phrase “horse, foot and guns” covers it. Cavalry, infantry, artillery. The trinity of ground combat since before Napoleon, still true in the age of drones and satellites. You need all three, working together, or you lose. I’ve written before about the fiction of “defensive” versus “offensive” weapons. There’s no such thing. There’s only intention. A rifle is defensive if you’re behind a wall, offensive if you’re advancing. A howitzer is defensive if you’re firing from your own lines, offensive if you’re firing to support a breakthrough. The weapon doesn’t know. The intention is everything. For the first phase…

It’s tempting to watch the Moskva slip beneath the Black Sea and feel a little thrill of satisfaction. The Russian flagship, pride of Putin’s navy, either taken out by Ukrainian missiles or consumed by its own catastrophic incompetence. For anyone watching this war with hope for the defenders, it’s a moment worth savoring. But savor it too long, and you might miss what it says about us. The same vulnerabilities that sent a Russian cruiser to the bottom exist in every navy, including ours. Maybe especially ours. For years now, the reports have piled up like unpaid maintenance requests. The…

There’s a certain type of man who thrives in the fog between war and peace, where the rules are written in pencil and the truth is whatever survives the night. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon is that type of man. The name alone sounds like Le Carré drafted it. Shadowy UK intel figure. Chemical weapons expert. Frequent television commentator. Former commander of Britain’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment. And now, once again, at the center of a familiar drama. Syria first. Remember the White Helmets? Those heroic first responders with their GoPro cameras and perfectly timed footage of children pulled…

There’s a question buried under all the footage of burning tanks and shattered buildings that nobody in Washington wants to answer honestly: why isn’t Putin doing more? Not why isn’t he winning—we know the answers to that, or think we do. Bad planning, poor logistics, corrupt supply chains, overconfidence, yes-men telling the boss what he wants to hear. All true, all documented, all contributing to a campaign that looks nothing like the blitzkrieg the Kremlin imagined. But here’s the part that doesn’t fit the narrative: if Putin wanted to level Ukraine, he could. The Russian air force hasn’t been grounded.…

There is a proposal worth considering, though not for the reasons circulating on social media. The fake naturalization certificate making the rounds is transparent nonsense. It misspells his name. It has the wrong signature. It uses a stock photo from his official website. It places him in Vero Beach, Florida, a detail so absurd it would be funny if the intent weren’t deception. The usual suspects are pushing it, the same ones who told us he bought mansions and yachts with American tax dollars. All lies. All easily disproven. But the idea behind the lie—that Zelensky deserves some special relationship…