April 2022
Putin?s War Playbook
April 22, 2022
Laina Farhat-Holzman
Pajaronian
Putin?s background was as a KGB spy, not a military expert. He uses war as a blunt cudgel, not what modern military professionals would do. His war decisions are a direct demonstration of his character. He gambles shrewdly, takes risks, and is never constrained by empathy or conscience. It has worked for him so far.
Mainstream media often invite both active and retired military officers to guide us through more...
Laina Farhat-Holzman
Pajaronian
Putin?s background was as a KGB spy, not a military expert. He uses war as a blunt cudgel, not what modern military professionals would do. His war decisions are a direct demonstration of his character. He gambles shrewdly, takes risks, and is never constrained by empathy or conscience. It has worked for him so far.
Mainstream media often invite both active and retired military officers to guide us through more...
July 2020
Earning Their Spurs
At the annual Al Smith fundraising dinner in New York in October 2019, former secretary of defense, Jim Mattis, joked about his experience in the Trump administration:
"I?m not just an overrated general. I am the greatest, the world?s most overrated?I would just tell you too that I?m honored to be considered that by Donald Trump because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress. So I guess I?m the Meryl Streep of generals?And frankly that sounds pretty good to me. more...
That Which You Sow?
Actions have consequences. We all know this, something that good parentis teach children. In a recent column of mine, I referred to Darwin Awards: a mocking catalog of actions that have disastrous consequences, mainly removing the perpetrator from the gene pool.
Donald Trump has a serious problem: he wants to win reelection from a voter pool that has shrunk from its high of 49 percent. Polling, even that done by his propaganda organ, Fox News, is showing numbers well under more...
August 2018
Climate Change Consequences
Iran has a serious water problem. Major lakes, such as Oroumieh, are drying up, as are water systems that have sustained the countryside villages for thousands of years. Some years ago, the shortage of water in Tehran, which, with its surrounding suburbs, may have to water 15 million people, alarmed the leadership. Iran became the first Muslim country to mandate population control.
Couples wanting marriage licenses had to take a class in contraception and buy into more...
November 2014
Russia's Short-term and Long-term Prognosis
If the thugs in ISIS were not so busy decapitating people, we might have been paying more attention to a longer-term hostile force, Russia. Russia has been an important target of Western attention since the 19th century, when this once backward, frozen backwater came to life and proceeded to conquer and colonize all the countries across Central Asia (the old Silk Route), ending on China's border on the Pacific Ocean. They controlled 11 time zones and warranted watching.
Russia wa more...
Russia wa more...
September 2014
This Is No Longer Your Grandfathers' Army.
If we are talking softly but carrying a big stick, as President Teddy Roosevelt advised, we need a big stick. Americans divide themselves into hawks who believe freedom requires defense and doves who believe that if we are nice, others will be too.
The hawks are certainly right that a nation without a good military is vulnerable to the world's bullies. The majority of Western European countries are doves, a position they are permitted because since the end of World War II, the Un more...
The hawks are certainly right that a nation without a good military is vulnerable to the world's bullies. The majority of Western European countries are doves, a position they are permitted because since the end of World War II, the Un more...