The War in Ukraine: Realities, Myths and Blunders on March 21, 2022In war, as Clausewitz told us, “fog and friction” can make even the simplest of operations impossible. Likewise, war is filled with realities, myths and blunders. In the Ukraine war, one reality is most troubling. That is the diametrically opposed views of Western and Russian perceptions of the war, how it is being waged and […]
Will Putin Threaten Kyiv with a Nuclear Strike or Surrender? on March 14, 2022When questioned about prosecuting the 2003 war in Iraq, then Major General David Petraeus famously asked, “Tell me how this ends?” That question is even more relevant today regarding Ukraine. Recall Iraq disintegrated into a widespread insurgency in 2004 that General Petraeus would have to suppress two years later. During that war, then defence secretary, […]
Shock and Awe in Ukraine? Not Yet on March 7, 2022Make no mistake. What Russia is attempting in Ukraine is shocking and awing. It is not Shock and Awe. I should know. In 1995, I chaired the group that originated the concept of Shock and Awe. But first, what were Russia’s aims and strategy in Ukraine? President Vladimir Putin laid out his demands for a […]
Ukraine: What Next? on February 28, 2022Vladimir Putin has not surprised the West with the recognition of independence and immediate deployment of “peacekeepers” into the breakaway Ukrainian provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk. But he has shocked it. The question remains what will be his subsequent actions and will he turn shock into awe with his next moves? And what should our […]
Mr Putin Meet Mr Khrushchev on February 21, 2022For the moment, the Ukraine crisis seems less tense as, reported, Russia has moved some of its forces from the Ukraine border back to garrisons. Some will suggest that perhaps this is a signal similar to the Cuban Missile Crisis of nearly sixty years ago. When Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev ordered his ships destined to […]
Lyndon Baines George W Barack Biden? on February 14, 2022Before the US gets too bogged down in Ukraine, history offers a cautionary note for the Biden administration and the nation. On August 7, 1964, Congress passed with, only two dissenting votes, the Tonkin Gulf Resolution that consigned Americans to a decade’s long war it would lose in Vietnam over attacks by North Vietnamese PT […]
What Infrastructure Plan? on February 7, 2022Last November 15, President Joe Biden signed the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act). How much of that bill has already been spent so far? The public will be shocked and probably not surprised by the answer. But before providing that answer, the Act was intended to: Deliver clean water to […]
Mind Control is Here and Now! on January 31, 2022Make no mistake: Mind control is here and now and in ways, most people fail to recognize. The term “mind control” reeks of Orwell’s 1984 and a dystopian universe where humans are semi-automatons regulated by a higher authority resident in science-fiction movies. In reality, people are affected every day by lesser degrees of “mind control” […]
A White House in Extremis Needs Help Now! on January 24, 2022A year ago, I proposed six recommendations for the incoming Biden administration to consider as it developed its policies. The administration did not. As it begins its second year, on the current course, the administration is in or close to extremis. Inflation is at thirty-year highs. The filibuster seems here to stay. The Build Back […]
January 6 Redux? on January 10, 2022January 6 marked a day of reckoning in America. One year ago, rioters protesting the 2020 presidential election had stormed the US Capitol. Donald Trump was impeached for fomenting the insurgency and, then, acquitted by the Senate. A recent poll showed over 90 per cent of registered Democrats and 70 per cent of Independents believed […]