Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke, the Elder, mastermind of the Franco-Prussian War (among others), said that “Errors in tactics can be corrected on the next battle, but errors in strategy can only be corrected in the next war.” By strategy, he meant the overarching war plan of a nation. And his point was that if […]

A crescent Moon is waning, But the sky – an inky black, Ghostly clouds dart silently by, A fleet of ships maneuvering for attack. Frost is building on the roof, With Thanksgiving a week away, The Dismal Swamp seems mighty cold In this mid Autumn day. Brew some tea, feed the dogs, Two deer glide […]

On the north side of a runway, at an airfield about 60 miles west of Gdansk, Poland, about 10 miles from the Baltic, lies a US Navy operated installation. It is a missile defense base – known as AEGIS Ashore. It was just declared fully operational just a week or so ago, though it has […]

Birch and Pine and Maple, A stand a broad oak trees, Northern forest, hardwoods and soft, And a cold, hard winter breeze. The leaves are falling to the ground, Snow now on the mountain tops, Hear the rustle in the wood, As each leaf through the branches drops. All prepare for winter, Working hard all […]

Author’s Note: After reading some more miserable accounts of life in the trenches, they all want to push the Russians out, but they keep looking around asking “WT…?” Then my Muse dictated this to me: The President has a victory plan, How he’s gonna win the war, Just another year of fighting, That’s all he’s […]

A brilliant full Moon o’er the forest, The dogs give me the eye, Mighty cold for an October night, Under a cloudless lapis sky. Dawn still two hours away, But no deer to be seen, Already have their winter coats, Gray shapes in a gray woodland scene. The leaves are all quite brittle, Quietly crunching […]

A cool breeze, a brilliant Moon, The mountains and forts slide by, Glowing a brilliant white in Moonlight, They glide silently across the sky. Some are smaller, only small islets, Other with towering mountains possessed, Deep valleys and might castles, One after another, they march in from the west. Do those canyons hide more mighty […]

This past week President Biden asked Israel to address Iran’s recent missile attack on Israel with a proportional response, and refrain from striking the Iranian oil industry or the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Rumor as of Sunday afternoon is that there’s been a specific offering to Israel if they will refrain – weapons and gear […]

Tsar Vlad I is in the news again, talking about nuclear weapons. The news media reports he has changed his nuclear policy but I wonder if that is so. I say that for a simple reason: Russia’s nuclear policy is Vlad Putin’s nuclear policy. He is the guy who will order nuclear weapons be used; […]

Several More amendments to chew on (I promise this is the last one for a while). I repeat my earlier comment, none of this is definitive. Rather, these are the starting points for discussion. We need to fix a few points, and to fix them we first need to discuss them. The words below are […]