New at PJMedia VIP. Is it possible to measure the mettle of candidates for general officer rank with tests? Or is it one of those ineffable qualities best left to seniority and institutional judgment?
A Reversal of Fortune
Some news stories are ambiguous enough to suggest a fantastic alternative. Take the high school teacher who found T-Rex footprints in North Dakota. Fossil footprints, right?
“Kent Hups said he couldn’t contain his excitement when he came across several giant three-toed track prints that appeared to be T. Rex footprints in a North Dakota land formation last year.”
High school science teacher discovers rare T. Rex tracks: ‘A real pivotal moment’
Kent Hups could not contain his excitement when he came across several giant three-toed track prints that appeared to be T. Rex footprints in North Dakota.
Phantom Islands
It’s a curious fact that some places on the map don’t exist. Especially islands. Perhaps the most famous one of all is Atlantis. But instances existed until the 20th century, ready made for movie plots.
Continue reading “Phantom Islands”
Expect the Unexpected
New at the Belmont Club: A quarter century after September 11, 2001 a new generation has gone from confidently expecting the End of History to cautiously walking point into an uncertain future.
Before I Forget
Sometimes I’m tempted to write an atmospheric piece, an exposition that doesn’t capture the facts but a mood, what DJs sometimes call the soundtrack of our lives. In this case a score of the early days of involvement in what we now call the Cold War. It was strange age. The time before death; a time before love and before old age. Recalling that period I hear only music, the memories have faded.
Continue reading “Before I Forget”Brinksmanship
The Impregnable Strait
New at the Belmont Club. The Islamic Republic’s ultimate weapon was supposed to be control over the Straits of Hormuz. It was the geographical fact to which there was no answer. That turned out to be not quite true.
Feet of Clay
Outbreak vs Cure
New at the Belmont Club: The trial of a new ebola treatment in the Congo is a reminder that what is derided as Western civilization is useful more than sometimes.
Beijing Turns Against Identity Politics
The Politics of Blackmail
The Ancient Risk
New at PJMedia VIP. For many creatures, including humans, tribalism has been the ultimate defense. People alone took the stranger into the fire to learn from him if they could. But it always remained a risky encounter that could easily go wrong. And it did in Belfast.
A Dark Blockade
The Enemy Around
New at PJMedia VIP. The U.S. military said it is deploying “multidomain unmanned platforms” as part of ongoing operations connected with “Project Freedom” aimed at restoring freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. In plain English, this means it has deployed hundreds of robots that are now operating in the air, on the surface of the Strait, and under the water. This is how it may work.
The Islamic Republic’s Choice
New at the Belmont Club. Iran would be caught on the horns of a dilemma – the Horns of Hormuz as it were: to let the ships pass or by opposing them, give Donald Trump a 60-day renewable permit to pound the Islamic Republic into dust. Accepting either course would likely be fatal to the Islamic Republic. If Tehran lets the ships pass unmolested, the Strait will be closed only to them and open to everyone else. They would have blockaded themselves!
Made in Iran Vs Made in Japan
New at PJMedia VIP. China estimates than Japan has enough plutonium to make 5,500 nuclear weapons. Iran has potentially less than 1% of that. Why does the world not worry about Japan?
Memory
Victory Is In The Mind
Defa-e Mozaiki
New at the Belmont Club. From decades of experience at fighting Israel, Iran’s Islamic Republic conceived of strategy to create a defense so deep, so redundant and decentralized that no decapitation or conventional attack could destroy it. They called it Defa-e Mozaiki, the Mosaic Defense.
Information is Surprise
New at PJMedia VIP. Why did Peter Thiel talk about the Antichrist in Rome? The optimists of the last century thought the future would bring them the answers only to learn that it brought even more puzzling questions.
