The real world isn’t like the movies. Leaders of western democracies don’t gleefully stuff their pockets with cash while bellowing with laughter as they watch schools and hospitals being bombed. Somewhere along the line, human rights organizations went insane. They internalized the Michael Moorean ideology that all war waged by developed nations is based on…
Paper tiger revealed in Syria, say Israelis. Guess who?
December 20, 2015
I always loved the phrase “paper tiger.” The communist Chinese invented it to describe the US. My mother was a great fan of folded paper doodads. This is the sort of thing she did. In July of this year, I became convinced that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—the Iranian nuclear deal—was an international…
Adrift no longer. Without even knowing it, I arrived
December 17, 2015
I never knew what to do with my life. In very real ways, I never had a life. Some forms of trauma are impossible to “get over.” The closest I came to having a career was the ten years I spent as a music journalist in Los Angeles. It didn’t pay anything, but my parents…
Islamic anti-terrorism coalition deeply confuses the “experts”
December 16, 2015
What’s the best way to win a war? The answer: Make it impossible for your enemies to know what’s really happening. Yesterday Saudi Arabia announced the formation of an Islamic coalition to fight terrorism. Today some people are gloating that it’s “already collapsed.” Saudi Arabia’s coalition of Islamic countries against terrorism is starting to look like…
World, you’re very lucky that I have no power
December 15, 2015
There’s no question that those putting their lives on the line to fight Islamic terrorism are better people than me. They don’t retaliate when lied about and unfairly criticized. All I can say is that the world should be grateful that I’m just a blogger and not a president, prime minister, king, or high-ranking military…
Quiet professionals save us while we disgrace ourselves
December 14, 2015
The British have described the operation to kill Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamic State terrorist known as Jihadi John. This level of openness is unusual; special-operations units tend to be very quiet. The reason we’re hearing about this is twofold: psychological warfare, and also the Islamic State is under ferocious assault. It likely won’t be around…
Syrian Democratic Forces: Possibly the people we’ve needed
December 13, 2015
On October 11, 2015, a new Syrian rebel alliance was announced: the Syrian Democratic Forces. A Kurdish militia in northern Syria has joined forces with Arab rebels, and their new alliance has been promised fresh weapon supplies by the United States for an assault on Islamic State forces in Raqqa, a spokesman said on Monday….
Conspiracy, confusion, attention whoring, or politics?
December 12, 2015
People tell me that my posts are “conspiracy theories.” No. I write about military deception (MILDEC) and clandestine operations to IMPROVE the world. If I think that several nations are secretly cooperating to destroy the Islamic State, that isn’t a conspiracy theory, since a conspiracy is by definition two or more people agreeing to do…
Hope springs eternal in the hearts of the Iranian mullahs
December 11, 2015
What keeps the mullahs of Iran going? Hope. They think that if they just continue funding and fomenting terrorism, eventually the rest of the world will give up and die. This conviction has finally backfired spectacularly. Bahrain’s king holds Hanukkah candle-lighting French Rabbi Moshe Levin says King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa ‘truly loves’ the…
