If you’ve ever played Dungeons and Dragons, you’ll be aware that before a player can enter the game, he must choose (among other things) an alignment, by which he’s supposed to guide his in-game decisions and actions. When I last played D&D, there were four alignments available: Lawful Good Anarchic Good Lawful Evil Anarchic …
Category: war
May 02 2025
How To Make A Leftist-Statist-Globalist Mad
We’ve got plenty of those here in the U.S., and they’re madder than a mob of March hares: Here’s one, Here’s another, And another, And one more for lagniappe. But America doesn’t have a monopoly on them. Oh no. Europe has plenty – many highly placed, too: European leaders hate him because …
Apr 27 2025
Violence And Perspectives
I strongly disapprove of violence done to me. — Robert A. Heinlein I feel the same. I’d imagine that most of us do. That’s sort of obvious, isn’t it? No one actually wants to be on the receiving end of violence, including those who set out to “do unto others.” But then, …
Mar 01 2025
The Motive That Dare Not Speak Its Name
I’m terribly tired, so this will be a short piece. The big news is, of course, the falling-out yesterday between Ukrainian dictator Volodymyr Zelensky and President Trump. Trump is determined to find a way to negotiate an end to the war between Ukraine and Russia; Zelensky wants to keep the war going. The Ukrainian …
Dec 26 2024
Missing The Point
I try to retain respect for other commentators, even when they write things I completely reject. But I do expect people who take a hand in guiding popular opinion to ask the right questions and demand that they be fully and honestly answered. Intelligent people must not allow themselves to be spoon-fed an erroneous …
Nov 18 2024
Is Serenity Even Possible Just Now?
“I feel that if any songs are gonna come out of World War III, we’d better start writing them now.” – Tom Lehrer The tag end of the Usurper Regime appears determined to trigger World War III: President Biden has authorized Ukraine’s military to use U.S.-provided long-range missiles on targets inside Russian …
Nov 11 2024
For Armistice Day
“Weapons of mass destruction” go back further than 1945. Even in World War I, there were flamethrowers… and gas. Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. …
Nov 10 2024
A Day To Remember
No, this won’t be about the sinking of the Titanic. The British call it Remembrance Day, and commemorate it with red poppy badges on the left of the chest. Americans call it Veterans’ Day, recite John McCrae’s poem to one another, and that’s about it. But it was originally called Armistice Day, in …
Oct 01 2024
A Questionable Strategy
In days long gone by, the recognized and acknowledged path to victory in war was the capture of the opponent’s sovereign. Indeed, that was the main reason kings led their own armies into battle: to give the enemy a fair shot at him, under the assumption that the enemy would reciprocate. It was also …
Jul 25 2024
Never-Ending Wars
War has been part of the human condition for millennia. That’s not an endorsement, just an observation of the historical facts. You’d think, after so many centuries of bloody strife, we’d have learned something about how to avert it. After all, it takes lives, destroys wealth, and leaves giant messes for the survivors to …
May 07 2024
Whose Side Are We On
I can’t help but wonder: The Biden administration’s intensive public and private campaign to forestall Israel’s assault on Rafah has become its toughest test to date with its Middle East ally. Hours after President Biden on Monday warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against a full-scale assault on Rafah, Israel’s military conducted …
Apr 27 2024
Unspeakable Or Unthinkable Part 2: An Amoral Calculus
As my Gentle Readers might have expected, I received quite a lot of feedback on the previous piece. I wasn’t surprised by the tone of it. Disappointed, perhaps, but not surprised. The mass warfare of World War II, in which many thousands of noncombatants died, should have taught us something. The atomic bombings, …
Apr 26 2024
Unspeakable Or Unthinkable?
There are things that must be said. Some of those things are terrible to contemplate. Fortunately, there are a few people, at least, who are willing to say them. I aspire to be numbered among them. Just now, the premier speaker of the unspeakable is Tucker Carlson: For those who don’t watch …
Apr 15 2024
Good Guys And Bad Guys
“The first casualty when war comes is truth and whenever an individual nation seeks to coerce by force of arms another, it always acts, and insists that it acts in self-defense” – Locomotive Engineers Journal, February 1929 In high school, I had an American History teacher who opened his class on the subject …
Mar 25 2024
Realism In War
I hope the shade of the late, great Ursula Le Guin won’t mind the following longish excerpt from her short novel The Word For World Is Forest: “In Rieshwel, New Java. Fourteen days ago. A town was burned and its people killed by yumens of the Camp in Rieshwel.” “It’s a lie. …
Mar 04 2024
A Question With An Unpleasant Answer
Now that I’m caught up on my obligations, let’s address a painful question. It’s often been asked over the years. It’s painful because the most accurate answer to it is unpleasant. It just cropped up at Gab: Do the PEOPLE – of ANY Country – Really WANT WAR? And the answer is: Yes, …
Feb 27 2024
Agreements Between Nations
John Mills at Gateway Pundit has posted a piece on treaties and their utility, with particular emphasis on the post-Cold War world. It’s a good piece well worth reading, which reminds us that treaties themselves cannot and will not guarantee peaceful relations between nation-states. It got me to thinking about a subject that’s been …
Dec 07 2023
To Those Who Think The UN Is Worth Something
Ponder this: United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres invoked Article 99 of the U.N. charter on Wednesday for the first time. He cited a “severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza” as the war rages on between Israel and the militant group Hamas…. Guterres has called for a ceasefire. …
Nov 03 2023
The Biggest Picture
The exchanges of rhetoric over the IDF invasion of Gaza have already breached the ludicrousness threshold and are rocketing toward utter insanity. The tweet embedded here lays the matter out plainly. And as I said immediately below that, wars of extermination have no rules. No amount of hand-wringing will change the fundamentals here. …
Nov 01 2023
Give No Quarter To Those Who Seek Your Blood (UPDATED)
I was pleased to read this, from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: While Israel is doing everything to get Palestinian civilians out of harm’s way, Hamas is doing everything to keep Palestinian civilians in harm’s way. Israel urges Palestinian civilians to leave the areas of armed conflict, while Hamas prevents those civilians from …
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