Big Men, Small Men
I grew up with a genuine respect for President Harry S. Truman, a Democrat and the man left to fill the shoes of President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the end of World War II. As a young officer, I learned that Read more…
9-11: A Score Ago
I received a call from a good friend and former Army colleague to talk about 9-11. He was one of my junior officers in the 1st Infantry Division and a very fine man. He is greatly disappointed these days. He loves his country. He’s ready Read more…
On Pottery
It’s hard to imagine peace in Afghanistan these days. Particularly now that the country has been abandoned to Taliban thugs and their roving assassination squads culling out former supporters of the U.S. to murder them in cold blood. There is no peace Read more…
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The events of the last week in Afghanistan have given all of us pause. As a former soldier and combat veteran I have found myself oscillating from bewilderment to anger. I’m bewildered because I know that the U.S. has the Read more…
Vacation Update II
This week, Shelley and I have spent the week with kids and grandkids at Rosemary Beach, Florida near Panama Beach City. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time with our loved ones. Watching our grandchildren grow up—those with us this week Read more…
Vacation Update I
This week, Shelley and I are doing something we rarely do. Taking a vacation. Since we spend so much time at our place on the Potomac River, we feel like that is all the vacation we normally need. But who can resist a trip to Florida with kids Read more…
The Will to Deter
During his Administration, former President Donald Trump made a significant commitment in his budget to increase expenditures to refurbish the American military that had been—quite frankly—depleted during the two decades of counter insurgency (COIN) warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq. COIN also—while Read more…
Racing Through the Louvre
I don’t watch much news on television anymore. For me what passes as news is more akin to the stuff of a gossip column or a grocery market tabloid than serious information that people of a free society require to hold Read more…
The Ordination of Idiocy
Like others, I have a routine in the morning. It involves paging through the news to see what is going on in the world. And what I see never fails to amaze me, either the events that occur or the absurdity they Read more…
Compasses, Canteens, and Bayonets
War is violent. It is not something we should take lightly. Nor is it anything we should engage in unless our vital national interests are at stake. The past two decades saw the United States military very involved in counter insurgency wars in Read more…