Thomas Wictor

Posts Tagged ‘Russian intervention Syria’

Russia is learning that some people don’t scare easily

When Russia decided to intervene on behalf of Bashar al-Assad, those who don’t know anything about military matters thought that they were seeing a level of competence that nobody else had shown in the conflict. They were wrong. My experience with Russians had prepared me for what inevitably happened. One of the best films ever…

 

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Cavemen don’t win wars. They make threats and then die

I’m not able to tell you when or how Israel will take action against her enemies. The Arab League completely flummoxed me with its military brilliance; therefore I gave up trying to figure out what was going to happen next. I think Israel was waiting for everyone arrayed against her to become cavemen. That moment…

 

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Posturing staves off disaster in the Middle East

One of the reasons that westerners can’t solve the problems in the Middle East is that we can’t distinguish between genuine threats and posturing. I admit that I myself have this deficit. It’s not possible for me to tell what’s real and what’s a performance. However, Middle Easterners understand what’s actually going on. There’s always…

 

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Don’t be like my father

My father was a very complex man. When he was in the Coast Guard, he climbed to the tops of LORAN (long-range navigation) towers that were 620 feet (189 meters) or more in height. He did it for fun. In 1949 he was stationed on Bikati Island, Makin Atoll, in the Gilbert Islands (red arrow)….

 

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