[August 16, 2025] Ordinarily, I don’t get involved in diplomacy as that is the purview of the Diplomatic Corps, the Department of State, and Flag Officers. I would get involved from the sidelines in what is commonly called “grain diplomacy.” This term has historically been used to refer to the strategic use of grain exports or imports by… Read More »
[August 15, 2025] In a shocking article, Edward Ring tells of the impending crash of Western civilization because of the simple truth that we aren’t having enough kids. A seismic demographic shift from below-replacement-level births means our way of life is disappearing. This will be a hard reality for the West. East Asia has it much worse, and… Read More »
[August 11, 2025] The weather in the latter half of April was heating up and our Engineer effort was as well. There is nothing like inbound American BCTs on a fixed, but secret timeline (I was on the “need to know” list) to motivate us. Our Engineer missions at a variety of bases, large and small, had to… Read More »
[August 7, 2025] To this day, I firmly believe that America’s decision to enter a war with Iraq inside a coalition was the right decision. And it was the right thing to do, not because the government of Iraq was radically anti-American, or because it “possessed WMDs,” or due to its storied history of initiating wars in the… Read More »
[August 3, 2025] I recently came across Dr. Jordan Peterson talking with Chris Williamson. The idea of what he calls The Shallow Pond of Empathy is something that appeases people and does not cause them immediate discomfort. It is prioritized even if the net effect over the long term results in their suffering. According to Dr. Peterson, that’s… Read More »
[August 2, 2025] Big words for a big program to improve the health of our children in President Trump’s MAKE AMERICA FIT AGAIN strategy. That’s the goal of a new Executive Order signed by Trump this past Thursday which establishes a Presidential test and award. The EO establishes excellence, competitiveness, and sportsmanship in schools. Most adults today lived… Read More »
[July 31, 2025] I arrived in Iraq three weeks before the U.S. declared the end of combat operations in Iraq, on August 31, 2010. This tour was the beginning of my third combat year, and by then, I knew the landscape well. What did this presidential declaration mean to the troops on the ground in Iraq? Zero. Nothing… Read More »
[July 25, 2025] That Wednesday morning began cool, with lightning, thunder, and rain beginning around 0230 hours. This was great for plants but hard on our construction efforts in the Iraq War. The reason was the mud, and not just any mud, but mud made of extremely fine particulate. It was stuck like glue to anything it came… Read More »
[July 19, 2025] Taken from my 2021 book Our Longest Year in Iraq, I made a crucial distinction between “insurgents” and “terrorists.” To understand the difference makes us understand them better. In that we failed and regularly made no distinction between a homegrown insurgent and international terrorist. Both were bad but we owed it to our mission to… Read More »
[July 10, 2025] The early morning of Thursday, 5 April 2007, was among the nicer weather days of the year. “Clear and cool” is what I jotted down in my notebook. A nice, cool day was rare, and so we would enjoy it while it lasted. Because building Coalition facilities was a precondition for the success of the… Read More »