Category: Arrian

Arrias: Thank You

Editor’s Note: NATO comes to our town as France is in turmoil over an election lurch left and wit a campaign in turmoil. That is being played out before a media that has been willfully blind. Arrias takes on that issue this morning! – Vic To the Main Stream Media: Thank You! I’ll begin by […]

Arrias: July 4th and Paul Revere

Paul Revere Patriot, Horseman and Industrialist I started writing this in early April but somehow was sidetracked. But as this fellow was a key player at the beginning, he is worth remembering on our nation’s birthday. Years ago we had a neighbor, Mr. Charles Bradford. He was a direct descendant of Governor Bradford, of Mayflower […]

Arrias: Whither Ukraine

I spend a good deal of time trying to make sense of the war in Ukraine. Over the course of the last 28 months the war has changed, expanded, and is slowly but surely escalating as more and more ideas are creeping into planning cells: leaders in France, Poland and the Baltic states have suggested […]

Arrias: More Lessons Learned

We are 120 weeks into the war in Ukraine, a peace conference begins in a week in Switzerland (at which only one side is represented), and the war continues to evolve. But there are some lessons we can draw from the war, and perhaps some hints of what the future may hold. None of these […]

Arrias: Captain Queeg and the ICC

In Herman Wouk’s masterpiece “The Caine Mutiny,” the clever, intelligent but execrable LT Keefer manages to maneuver and manipulate his shipmates into committing a de facto mutiny, removing Captain Queeg from command of his ship. In the court martial that follows, the lawyer turned Navy pilot, (again a lawyer as he recovers from being shot […]

Arrias and His Muse: Blue Sky

Author’s Note: Keeping current on the war… My Muse had some thoughts… – Arrias Blue Sky Blue sky, green grass, the smoke a dirty brown, Can’t hear a drone, can’t see a drone but a Round incoming, better keep your head down; Another piece of battlefield arcana. War grinds on, young men die, this will […]

Arrias: Strategic Bombing and Gentle War

Author’s Note: This was another struggle… the more I pick at it, the worse It think the situation is – I’m not sure we can get out of this mess… – Arrias Strategic Bombing and Gentle War Much of the modern way of war springs from the writings of 4 men from the 1920s: Gen. […]

Arrias: Cold War Redux

In case you’ve missed most of the last 2 years, there have been several excellent examples of Western Technology on display that really must leave the rest of the world both a little bit in awe and at the same time wanting to buy some. I’m speaking of the capabilities of some of our radars […]

Arrias: Ground Truth

The French Frigate Alsace is on its way home today; she is out of missiles. It would almost seem a modern version of a Pyrrhic victory. Plutarch relates that Pyrrhus was a descendant of fleet-footed Achilles, king of the Molossians, later king of Epirus, then Macedonia, and after that, tyrant of Syracuse. He was above […]

Arrias: Will

Author’s Note: Everyone else is writing about what is going to happen, thought I’d throw in my two cents… – Arrias Will Clausewitz summed it up nicely: “War is thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will.” Will is the only real “coin” in war. Everything else is a tool […]