Monday, June 27, 2016

English Speaking Commune

A lot of talk the last few days, of course, about Britain being one and apart from Europe. I've never thought of it as European per se, but distinctly British and set apart that France, Germany and Netherlands, say, are not.

Via Instapundit, a great quote from George Orwell about Britain:

When you come back to England from any foreign country, you have immediately the sensation of breathing a different air. Even in the first few minutes dozens of small things conspire to give you this feeling. The beer is bitterer, the coins are heavier, the grass is greener, the advertisements are more blatant. The crowds in the big towns, with their mild knobby faces, their bad teeth and gentle manners, are different from a European crowd. Then the vastness of England swallows you up, and you lose for a while your feeling that the whole nation has a single identifiable character. Are there really such things as nations? Are we not forty-six million individuals, all different? And the diversity of it, the chaos! The clatter of clogs in the Lancashire mill towns, the to-and-fro of the lorries on the Great North Road, the queues outside the Labour Exchanges, the rattle of pin-tables in the Soho pubs, the old maids hiking to Holy Communion through the mists of the autumn morning – all these are not only fragments, but characteristic fragments, of the English scene. How can one make a pattern out of this muddle?
Those differences have set the English speaking peoples apart. Why is Barbados nice while Haiti is Haiti?

There is a certain community of the English speaking peoples. Whatever one's ethnic heritage, if you're an American, Britain is the mother country. Most travel minded Americans will go to Britain at least once in their lives. The Queen and all that seem so close. A dirty little secret is that we Americans love the Royal Family more than the Brits.  In the American mind, Britain is also the gateway to Europe.

I do a lot of business with British magazines now. It really is true that we are two peoples separated by a common language. Whenever British editors and sales people call our conversations are dotted with awkward pauses. 'Hello?' I say. 'Is this William, then?' they always reply. They always hangup with a 'cheers, then' or 'brilliant'. I suppose I come off as an over enthusiastic Yank. There is always a barrier between us.

Canadians and Americans are the most alike, obviously. You can't really tell us apart accept for a few linguistic ticks which non-native English speakers won't be able to pick up, eh? The American travelling overseas who doesn't want to identify a such will always pretend to be from Toronto. The Cannucks have a politeness and reserve about them and a bit of hesitation, as if they can't decide if they're Brits or Yanks.

Of all the English speaking peoples the Australians are most like Americans. Almost the exact same history of conquering a continent, and the shared British heritage of course. They have the same outgoing and easygoing attitude as American. I am always instantly comfortable dealing with an Aussie.

Can't say I ever met a New Zealander or a South African in his natural environment and the South Africans I've known are Boers.

Britain since World War Two has been moving ever closer to the Continent. We hope the Brexit will slow and stop that, much as the Battle of Hasting severed England from Scandinavia.

There is a commune for Britain to join. We suggest that Britain join her eldest sons, America and Canada.

World War 1990 The Final Storm

A few updates on The Final Storm. 50,000 words and counting.

Readers will see:

  • Prologue: The Romanian Revolt
  • Part I:       The Battle of the Polish Plain
  • Part II:      The Battle of the three seas

The later chapter will include action in the Pacific, the Barents and the Black Sea, the last of which I think is extremely interesting as it involves the French and Italian Navies.

Both  were underrated in a lot of ways. The Regia Marina had some fine cruisers and even a small VTOL carrier, while the French had a pair of Clemenceau class carriers, both larger than their British counterparts.

Ah, the Battle of the Black Sea, the Crimea...boy does history seem to Rhyme.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

History Today; Rhyme, Rhmye Away

Over centuries Britain has stood against Continental pretensions. For 25 years she managed and manipulated alliances against French Anarchy and the Corsican Tyrant. Later of course she stood fast against German Imperialism and Nazism. She was America's first partner in the Cold War.

To stop the Continental behemoth Britain allied with the Germans against the French and later the French against the Germans and finally the Americans, French and Germans against the Russians.

Often her own elites waned to give in. Arguably the most important event in British 20th century history was Churchill's June cabinet meeting after the Fall of France. The wobblies seemed to be ascendant. Led by Lord Halifax, the wobblies waned to make a deal with Hitler. Winston told them he'd rather die face down choking in his own blood. During the Battle of Britain a favorite parlor game was 'Will he go Nazi?' Surely many of the toff and posh would have. Country is one thing, social status quiet another.

History doesn't repeat but it rhymes, someone said. Francis Fukayama said that the end of the Cold War brought the End of History. Well, here is history rhyming. Britain is standing fast against the Continental Pretensions of France and Germany and their elites are wobbly.

Is the Continent really that different today? France and Germany maneuvering, the Low Countries worried and looking to Britain. Even Russia is still there, pressing in from the east and fighting for its own interests. There is even a Turkish Question.

We never thought Britain would actually vote to leave the EU, but there it is. Europe looks much as it did a hundred, two hundred years ago. We suspect that in a hundred years time it will look the same.


Saturday, June 25, 2016

Rule Britannia

We are of course stunned at the Brexit's win. Stunned and delighted. The Elites of course, are taking it about as well as one would think:
Frustrated Londoners have now taken to social media to ask London mayor Sadiq Khan to declare the city independent from the rest of the UK and stay in the EU.
...whack...
Let's face it - the rest of the country disagrees. So rather than passive aggressively vote against each other at every election, let's make the divorce official and move in with our friends on the continent.
Again we see the Global Elite, more loyal to their fellow Elite than their countrymen. London is like Manhattan here in America or say, Toronto. All the same values, the same style, the same aesthetic. Remember how the trendy set in Toronto acted when Rob Ford became mayor?

Of all my favorite arguments the 'youth voted to Remain' is my favorite. As if this fact somehow legitimizes the outcome. We all know young people have great art, culinary tastes and overall judgement. Why I just think back to mullet, dayglo shorts and heavy metal T-shirt...

Yikes.

Britain has the 5th largest economy in the world and the 2nd largest in Europe. What are the Krauts and Frogs gonna do, stick their fingers in their ears and pretend the island doesn't exist?

Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves, Britons never will be slaves.

 

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Trumped!

A lone author's occasional attempt to understand Mr. Trump and his Phenomena

Part V: What might have been

We've mentioned before how we came of age during the era of extreme demonization, the 1990's, where Bill and Hill would constantly accuse us of malice and bad faith.

The likes of Newt and Bobdole never stood a chance.

Marco Rubio came of age during the same era. We are cut from the same cloth really.

It seems obvious to me Rubio spent the last 15 years preparing himself to run for office while getting bombarded by accusations of wanting to starve old people and throw children out on the street. The man always seemed unflappable to, almost British in his ability to stand before the camera, take Dem fire, and keep on going.

Good looking, articulate, always with an answer...cheerleader wife.

We wanted to  nominate him and go grab Nikki Haley to be his veep an run that pair against an old white Protestant lady. For once we wanted to be on the side of youth and new ideas, and call the other guys old and out of touch.

Also, I wanted to accuse the Dems of being racist.

Oh well.

We await the Brexit vote and suspect more political disappointment.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Britain: Time to Leave and Blow up the Chunnel

It should surprise nobody that this neo-con Anglophile would vote Leave if he could in tomorrow's upcoming referendum.

For the love of god what does the Anglo-Saxon race want with Europe? The Channel has enabled so much since 1066. Common Law, Parliament, the English language, all of it. Why subordinate Britain to a lot of Continentals name Fritz, Hanz, Genaro, Pierra, Jose and Adrubal?

This is really a battle of the Elites vs Everyone else, the will of those who look at a bowl of mashed peas and ask if they can get some of that 'avocado dip', as it were, against that of the British public.

The Elites love EUROPE, they love trans-national institutions. So much more prestigious than mere nation states. These are of course, well, pungent, aren't they? In America the Elites look to Europe for their ideas, or Canada if they have to. Its damn embarrassing to go to a Klimnt exhibit and admit you come form a country that has guns but not universal healthcare, isn't it?

Of course, other European countries have rejected the EU, France and the Netherlands in 2005, Ireland in 2008. None of it made any difference.

Ten years ago I felt very confident in my ability to look at polls and predict the correct outcome. Things have changed, I guess and I've lost my touch. There is this, though. David Cameron is lucky. He won the Scottish referendum and then the elections last year. My own sense is that his luck will hold.

ID4 leads to ID2, or is it ID8

I have written before about the influence Independence Day had on me.

Independence Day came out 20 years ago this summer. It was Will Smith's big vehicle, and the grand launch (relaunch) of the summer disaster blockbuster. Director Roland Emerich has been using the same template for several movies now, Godzilla, Day After Tomorrow, 2012 (which was on last night), etc. These all suck, BTW. The template is old.

Independence Day also changed the way movies were marketed. I saw the first ad in January 1996 during the Superbowl. It was simply a montage of all the destructive money shots. I waited with baited breath for six months. The first trailer I saw in the theater, during the premier of Mission Impossible, gave me chills:

Pretty cool, huh? It was in 1996.

I admit, the initial trailers gave the impression that Independence Day was more serious, darker than it actually is; closer to Spielberg's War of the Worlds (ughhh).

Look, its a summer blockbuster, I recall the esteemed Charles Krauthammer saying, 'It's shallow and its hoaky and its great.' All true. At many times it felt like a techno-thriller. Emerich seems to have made an attempt to emulate The Hunt for Red October. At times it certainly has that 'serious Washington' feel.

Here's an interesting review from Red Letter Media:

They're pretty harsh at some points. I don't necessarily disagree, but I don't care either.

This movie has massive payoff. Randy Quaid's redemption, the president leading the attack, the computer virus (we debated that in 1996, BTW) the final air battle, and on and on. This has always been one of my favorite scenes....oh hell, can't find it.

Like I said ID4 was a big influence on me. Let's tick off all the movies they pay homage to. Star Wars, War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still...anything else?

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Updates

Well, I'm uploading To Survive the Earth Today. In my heart of hearts I don't believe this is the last edit job, but we'll see.

My editor (PBUH) has World War 1990: Castro's  Folly- Operation Southern Storm.

The agent has the latest draft of Pershing in Command after yet more changes. They know what they're doing right? They must? That's my theory anyway. Heck, when you get a high powered lit agent, you listen, don't you?

Working on some interesting stuff. A magazine article about the Polish 1st Armoured Division in France. Another piece about the grand victory parade in 1865. Hey, when the editor says 'if you can write this ASAP I can get it into print ASAP,' one is inclined to do so.

In the current issue of Civil War Quarterly I have an article called 'Sherman's March'. I wanted to title it, 'Sherman, the mind and method of the march,' but what eve. In WWII Quarterly I have a piece about the Japanese invasion of the Philippines.

Monday, June 20, 2016

War of Annihilation

The Israeli's are issuing positively Arabesque threats. Via JPost:
A recent warning that the "next war with Hamas will be its last" is a reflection of a deeper change in the military’s and government’s thinking.
Saddam Hussein promised the 'mother of all battles', now the Israelis promise annihilation, first in Lebanon, now in Gaza:
Yet since the conclusion of the 50-day war with Hamas in the summer of 2014, a change has occurred in the thinking of the defense establishment and the government. The concept of fighting a war to achieve deterrence has been tossed aside, in favor of an old-new war goal: achieving the military destruction of the enemy.
The Israelis don't traditionally think this way. During the great Arab-Israeli Wars, the Israeli's goal was always to outlast their enemy and convince him to make peace. It worked with Sadat, of course, and King Hussein. Neither was a mad-man, heck King Hussein was always a reluctant warrior at best, as was his father, King Abdullah.

Of course, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and even Iraq were run by secular dictators. These had less patience for messianic nut-bags then the Israelis. Those messianic nut-bags are now Israel's main enemy. Of course, Egypt would welcome the destruction of Hamas while Saudi Arabia would welcome an Israeli strike on Iran.

What comes after Hamas. It is doubtful that Israel would want to run Gaza. One suspects they would destroy Hamas, casualties be damned, and turn the whole thing over to Abbas. He may be an incompetent clepto-crat, but Abbas is not a messianic nut-bag.

Better than nothing, I suppose.

Seems to me this has been written about before.

My war was more fun, with a fight in Gaza and a mini-invasion of Sudan.  Of course, General Pincus Kreiger wasn't trying to destroy Hamas, just degrade their capability.

How did the Israelis get ahead of me?

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Movies Aging Badly

From Looper, a list of great movies that have aged badly. Hard to disagree with anything here, with a few exceptions.

I am proud to say I've never seen Tron:

The tank arcade game was pretty cool, though.

I saw Temple of Doom not long ago and liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Not Raiders, of course, but nothing is, Nazi bastards.

Superman is still fantastic, but maybe I'm just being nostalgic. In 1980, when me dad brought home a VCR, Superman was one of the movies he had, the others were a pirated version of Star Wars (that was a yuuuge deal in 1980) and The Muppet Movie.

Braveheart is long, but the article is right, its the grandfather of the super-immersive combat sequences we expect since Saving Private Ryan. The battle sequence damn near gave me a seizure. Mel Gibson doesn't hate Jews, BTW. Its the English he loathes.

Top Gun, a huge deal in 1986, is unwatchable today. Wanna know what the 80's felt like? There ya go. Unless you're a woman or a gay man, there is no reason to watch this movie.

Titanic made me cry like a 13 year old girl who just got her first period in gym class. I never want to see it again. Kate Winslet had nice tits, though. If you want to know why we periodically suffer the scourge of boy bands, Titanic unmasked the 13 year old girl demo.

I  can't watch Robin Hood, long ago among my favorites, and here I am getting nostalgic again, ahhhh... 1991-92. Every girl between the age of 13 and 18 had the hots for Christian Slater. Some great one liners, though. 'Why a dull spoon, why not an axe or a sword...' the henchman asked, 'Because a dull spoon would hurt more, you twit,' replied the sheriff.

Don't be fooled, in 1999 Blair Witch was cutting edge and brilliant. Now it just looks like a camping trip someone uploaded to Youtube.

Man did they ever nail Forrest Gump. Its Baby Boomer masturbatory nostalgia, it worked for the Balding Boomers, of course, since they haven't been able to shut the hell up about their youth since their youth. It worked for us Gen-Xrs because, well, see above. We knew all the references the Balding Boomers knew. Little remembered today, the early marketing focused on Tom Hanks being CGI'd into historical footage. THAT was  a big deal in 1994.

Come to think of it, Looper is telling me my youth was awful, isn't it?

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Titles

Ok, got the title for the next WW1990 book. World War 1990: The Final Storm.

Trumped! A Lone Author's Attempt to Understand Mr. Trump and his Phenomina

Part III: The Post Reagan Battle

Reagan did something interesting to the GOP. He brow beat the Eastern Establishment, which doesn't exist anymore, into submission. George Bush was his Veep. The establishment thought it was cowing RR, but really, by making Bush his Veep, Reagan was cowing the EE.

Now after Reagan, the Eastern Establishment got its man, and Bush governed like an Eastern Establishment Republican. Example, he appointed the squish, David Souter at the suggestion of his CoS John Sununu by the way, but also Clarence Thomas. He won a war, but raised taxes. It was so schizophrenic at the time.

After Clinton beat Bush (I voted for Bill) the various factions in the GOP scrambled for control. The EE, represented in the House by Bob Michael, was shoved aside by Newt and the new generation of Republicans. These weren't the EE get along go along types. These came of age under Nixon and Reagan and came to the House with tons of policy ideas. That was they're thing, I was one of them, Rubio and Cruz are too.

These confronted Bob Dole, old hand of the senate. A deal maker with no fixed ideas really. But he knew how to get things done.

Into this storm, first in '92 and then in '96 for real came Patrick J, Buchanan. The author learned his politics watching Pat, Mort, Jack and Fred on the McLaughlin Group. Pat knew how to make waves. He was a Reagan man, a Nixon man, he wrote the intro to Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative.

Pat looked at politics in the 90's. felt betrayed by Bush, but didn't like the futurism, free trade and internationalism of Newt and co. Dole was a mush and beneath contempt.

Pat made some big waves in 1996. He was crushed eventually, by Bob Dole, who lost the election of course. Both the EE and Buchananism were gone and for the next 15 years or so Newt and his brand of policy-wonkish internationalism ran the GOP. Rubio and Cruz were its last vestiges.

There's a bit of Patrick J. Buchanan in Donald Trump. He certainly rejects the elites. He has no use for internationalism. Whatever Mr. Trump thinks, and I don't believe he really thinks anything, the GOP voters have rejected Cruz, Rubio, and my brand of conservative politics.

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Will's Good Idea for the week of 6/13/16

World War 1990: Short Storms.

This would be the series of short stories I promised dealing with small theaters and issues of the war. The first story I can think of is The Contra's drive on Managua. The reasons for this will seem obvious with the publication of World War 1990: Castro's Folly.

I like the idea of a lone British sub defending the Falklands.

Probably a few other ideas. I'm open to suggestions.

Forget the Summer of Love, I'll take the Summer of 87

This article about the bevy of great movies that came out in the summer of '86, well, its captured my heart:

You won’t find a better span of summer releases than the lineup that greeted moviegoers exactly 30 years ago in 1986. From May through August, marquees across America advertised still-beloved titles such as Top Gun, About Last Night, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and The Fly. And even as those films dominated the box office, movies like Short Circuit, The Great Mouse Detective, and Nothing in Common also found appreciative audiences.
Now, its about Summer '86 movies, why am I talking about '87? because I'm a Gen-Xer and movies usually took a year to show up on cable, where we all experienced them.

Forgive me for indulging in a bit of nostalgia but the summer of '87 was the best summer of my life. The movies were a big part of it. We'll get to that in a second.

It was the summer I turned 14. The last summer before I had to work. The last summer before I discovered girls. The summer I started writing. If the reader will think of the most special time of their youth, that's what the summer of '87 is for me.

In 1987 I got into baseball and baseball cards. I bought a tops '87 set. I still get sentimental when I see those cards. I also rediscovered the shoebox full of baseball cards I had in the basement, bought for me pack by pack by my mother when we would go to the stationary store to get cigarettes. They were '79 Tops.

I grew up on a cul-de-sac and every evening we'd play kick ball and every night, flashlight tag. We'd start wondering outside about 4 PM. It was a hot summer, and we liked to stay inside in the blasting AC. We were Yanks, don't you know. Me, Kevin, Owen, Antoine, the three girls, Jane (see A Line Through the Desert for that last one), Nicole, and Meg, her brother Steve. Some younger kids would sometimes show, Sabee, Samud and Sahar, PJ and Brian.

Inside I played games like Computer Baseball and Ogre. I managed the 1978 Yankees over and over again. Did a bit of tabletop wargamming too, Squad Leader comes to mind, Blitzkreig.

I wrote; a story about a sci-fi tank, hard to believe, I know.  There was still a lot of day baseball then. Heck, I remember vividly coming inside about 10 and watching the Yankees on a west coast trip. Since I didn't have a job or summer school (hard to believe that last one) I stayed up late.

Most nights I'd come inside and watch movies. Aliens must have been on every single night. There were others in my cohort. Stand by Me was yuuuuge, so was One Crazy Summer.

Thinking back, what was I reading? Bolos by Kieth Lamur. The Iron Tower Trilogy by Dennis L. Mckiernan...nothing else is coming to mind. Frankly it wasn't a big book time for me.

Sigh....Coincidentally this song came out in '87:

Every word of it is true, isn't it?

Monday, June 13, 2016

Fabulous Terrorism

Just like the Boston bombers and the San Bernadino terrorists, the Muslim terrorist in Orlando was on a federal watch list, for all the good it did the 53 dead and 50 wounded in Orlando. Heck, Mo Atta was under suspicion  after he applied for his pilot's licence but the federal bureaucrat who was concerned didn't do anything because she was afraid of being 'Islamophobic'.

As the late, great C. Hitchens said,   “a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.”

The Europeans were watching some of the Paris attackers. Well thank god for that. Of course France didn't participate in the Iraq campaign, for all the good it did them. France also has 'gun control' for all the good it did the dead.

The government can't protect you. Hell, even if the government could protect you, it wouldn't. Not part of the agenda, see. Behold the Fed's incompetence:

“I have been in this business for 30 years, and we all in law enforcement have talked about one of the theme parks getting hit by these terrorist killers. Never in all my years of training, and being involved in several investigative units, to include the FBI Task Force, would we have ever guessed a LGBT club be a target of an terrorist attack.”


Welcome to the age of terror.

We're all targets.

In which life continues to imitate Israel Strikes

This piece from the Weekly Standard is just chilling:

Hezbollah has a nasty collection of more than 130,000 rockets, missiles, and mortars aimed at Israel. This is a bigger arsenal than all NATO countries (except the United States) combined. Why, a reasonable person might wonder, does Hezbollah need an offensive arsenal bigger than that of all Western Europe?
“You don't collect 130,000 missiles if you don't intend to use them," says Matthew Levitt, a counterterrorism expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Hezbollah is a well-funded, violently anti-Israel terrorist organization based in Lebanon and a puppet of the Iranian regime.

I find this paragraph stunning:

The IDF no longer distinguishes between the sovereign nation of Lebanon and Hezbollah. Here's why: The terrorist group fully controls southern Lebanon, even to the point of limiting the movements of the Lebanese Army and also of the United Nations forces there. As well, Hezbollah holds significant positions in the Lebanese government and parliament. As such, Lebanon's infrastructure will likely be targeted. The IDF may well go after Lebanese bridges, airports, highways, and the electric grid, and IDF officials want Hezbollah to know this. Again, deterrence.

Ten years ago I read an article by the great Michael Totten called 'Anything can happen and any moment'. About Hezbollah in Lebanon, it was an eye opener for me. A few months later the Hezbollah War began.

In the piece the Israelis are acknowledging several things. The war will be bloody. The Israeli military will take heavy casualties. On the news will be images of smoldering tanks, charred aircraft wreckage, sinking ships. Israeli territory will be violated. Hundreds of Israeli civilians will be killed. Lebanon is toast.

One of the interesting things about this article is the Israeli attitude. They've stopped caring about Lebanon and the Lebanese. Ten years ago the Israelis were trying to support the Lebanese government, they wanted Beirut to stand up to Hezbollah. No longer. When Hezbollah launches rockets from a school, that school will soon be rubble.

When the war breaks out, and it will, this time the gloves are off.

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Will's Good Idea for the week of 6-13-16

Referencing the Midway anniversary I've always wondered what it, what if the Japanese had been really bold at Pearl Harbor and landed a couple divisions on Oahu. I grant that it would have been sticky for a while, especially the logistics. That said, they would have bee fighting on a tropical paradise where pine apples are basically weeds. The Japs would have managed. Then they follow this up with more serious and substantial landings in the Aleutians.

Now the intriguing part for me is what do the Americans do next?

I envision a different war Roosevelt's policy is Japan first. I figure a two pronged offensive with MacArthur gathering an army to retake Hawaii while Stilwell does the same in the Aleutians. I'm afraid the Aussies and Kiwis are on their own at Guadalcanal, which is much less important with Hawaii in Japanese hands.

Interesting, no?

I'll never do it. Ok, I won't be doing it soon.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Updates or I am in Hell

A friend and fan on FB was asking about publishing dates so I thought I'd do an update here.

Last night I sent Castro's Folly to the editor. If all goes well it'll be out in a few months, maybe even sooner.

Same editor just sent back to me To Survive the Earth. Editorial changes will go in next week.

World War 1990 Vol IV is 40,000 words and counting.

As soon as Vol IV is done will turn right around and get to work on Operation Pacific Storm will should come out, actually before Vol IV, which makes IV V doesn't it?

All week doing the latest round of !@#$#$@!!@#$$ revisions on Pershing in Command. I am in hell.

Ten Years Already

June 7th was also the anniversary of the assassination of Abu Musab al Zarqawi (god remember him?), the head of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The 'Surge' is commonly thought of as the turning point in the Iraqi campaign , but in truth the by the time we were funneling extra brigades into the country the stage for victory was already made. Killing Zarqawi was the first step. The next came in Anbar, where the Sunnis were finally fed up with Al Qaeda and entered into negotiations with the Marines. The result was the Anbar Awakening which chased AQI out of Anbar. In one fell swoops to leg of the insurgency were knock off the stool.

The third was knocked off by the Iraqi Army, which in March of 2008 declared war on the third lef, Muqtada al-Sadr and his Shia militia. The Battle of Basra was a great victory for the Iraqi army and by that summer Fallujah had a KFC and the Marines were bored and asking to go to Afghanistan.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Madness, Madness

So I was watching Bridge on the River Kwai last night. Wow, what a movie, what a finale.

Let's look ant the characters.

We have Nicholson, the quintessential British peacetime officer. No one is better at peace time soldiering than the Brits, and it shows through here. Nicholson insists on the book, on regulations, not just for form, but to keep the battalion together. He knows the instant he gives in, the battalion will fall apart. His means of keeping the battalion together is to build the bridge consequences be damned.

Colonel Saito is as dedicated to the Japanese Bushido way of soldiering as Nicholson is to the British way. He is baffled by the Brits, stubborn without shame, brave without honor.

Then there is Shears, the American skeptic who just wants out of the war.

We have leading Force 316 Colonel Warden, the Oxford don who seems to be having a great time, whose all for giving the project a go.

And finally, Joyce, the bored Canadian mathematician who wants adventure.

It all comes together in the final, epic ending.

During the march back into the camp, Shears, out of endurance and spite transforms into an iron-willed commando determined to get the job done. He takes it out on Warden who insists on being left behind after he is hurt, but Shears won't let him. Instead Shears hurts Warden in the best way he knows how, they carry him to the bridge, denying Warden his stiff-upper-lipped British ending.

Here's the confrontation between Shears and Warden appropriately titled 'How to live like a human being.':


Behold the skepticism right there, just look at Shears' face. 'You make me sick with your heroics.'

Joyce gets his adventure, alright. He's posted to the far side of the river to blow up the bridge. When Nicholson and Saito realize the Force 316 has mined the bridge, Joyce has to kill Saito in cold blood.

It is here that we see Shears ultimate transformation. Nicholson tries to stop Joyce. Shears stands up and gutterally, savagely shouts, 'Kill him! Kill him!' Look at the man's face, first as Joyce murders Saito:


Then as he shouts 'Kill him! Kill him!':

And finally, when Joyce is killed, Shears hurls himself into the water and swims to the far bank for no other reason than to murder Nicholson out of pure hate:


Look at the pure savagery in Shear's eyes. He'd tear Nicholson apart with his bear hands if he could. The only reasonable man in the whole movie transformed into a blood thirsty savage.

Not even Warden, who blows up his brdge comes out unscaithed. He throws his mortar away, rejected everything they have just done.

I said Shears was the only reasonable man in the whole movie, but that's not really true:

Here's the whole ending clip, an incredible explosion of tensions and anticipation. Just magnificent in every way:

 With the uproarious music, the movie ends as tragedy and farce.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Arabs Can't Fight

While we in America and the west commemorate the D-Day landings Israeli is commemorating its victory over Syria, Jordan and Egypt in the Six Day War  of 1967. An improbable victory that made the Jews undisputed masters of the region.

The title of this post is basically the thesis in an 8,000 word magnum opus of mine recently published in Counterfact Magazine. The piece was ostensibly about the Arab-Israeli Wars but the more I wrote the more I saw the main feature of the conflict was the Arabs' inability to defeat the Israelis.

Arab armies were larger and better equipped than the Israelis. Remember, Israel was not yet really a client state of ours as she is now. So why did the Arabs lose, again and again? I never really did answer the question.

We can state a few facts, though.

First, Arab societies were and are completely dysfunctional divided by tribe, class and religion.

Second, they're dictatorships. In his environment its hard for great generals to emerge, they're a threat to the regime.

Third, tactics. The Arabs were using Soviet blunt force tactics. These never work against a competent enemy.

Arabs are also delusional. Go ahead, ask an Egyptian who won the the Yom Kippur War. Go ahead, I'll wait. When a society can convince itself it won a war in clearly lost, or lost a war because of grand Zionist conspiracies, it can't learn and adapt from its military mistakes.

So a state of six million (whoops, there's that number again) Jews thrives on the banks of the Med, inventing new technologies and thinking of new and interesting ways to kill terrorists.

Egypt on the other hand just hand another military coup and Syria is tearing itself apart.

Hmmm, maybe we do know why Arabs can't fight.

Monday, June 6, 2016

Normandy? Normandy!

The title is a quote form one of the many confused Germans in The Longest Day, a movie I recently panned in this space.

I really don't have much to add.

One alternate history scenario...

After the failure of the Normandy landings Eisenhower was sacked and replaced by Montgomery, who felt his strategy of caution and overwhelming force had been vindicated.

With the invasion threat removed, Hitler was able to shift more than a dozen divisions, many of them his best, to the Eastern Front, where sudden counterattacks by the likes of the 2nd and 12th SS Panzer Divisions blunted the Soviet offensive and saved the German position in the east. Lines settled around the old Polish-Soviet border.

As stalemate ensued in both east and west, President Roosevelt was defeated in the election of 1944. In January of 1945, President Dewey fulfilled his campaign promise to concentrate on the Pacific and by April of that year, Curtis Lemay's 20th Air Force bombarded Japan on a nightly basis, blockaded and facing starvation.

Japan, now isolated and withered, President Dewey looked for a way out of the European morass, especially now that rumors abounded that Stalin was looking for a separate peace. Fortunately, that summer the army showed Dewey a way out of the European mess via the new super weapon it had built in the desert.

The Allied nuclear bombardment of Germany began in August with the destruction of Hamburg and three days later Wilhemshaven, both chosen in reaction to the renewed German submarine threat. Even as the Americans third and last bomb was dropped on Bremen, planners wondered if future attacks should not be made in the east to aide the Soviets, who alone were able to drive on Berlin and end the war...

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Updates


OK, World War 1990, so here's what I'm thinking:
-Castro's Folly (this one is completed): With the Eastern Block under heavy pressure the Soviets force Cuba to jump into the war resulting in the Cubans making trouble in Angola and Central America
-Operation Pacific Storm: More trouble this time in the Pacific (obviously). Well see action in the Soviet Far East
-Untitled (Poland, Barents Sea. Halfway done). The Battle for Eastern Europe continues.
-Maggie vs the IRA: just because I love Maggie and loath the IRA.
-1992: Political thriller, not sure if I'm going to do this, but I like the idea of writing about the political ramifications of the world I've created.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Will's good idea for the week of 5/30/16

Ughhh, I hate it when I get these, especially when they're so damn workable: World War 1990: Maggies' War...

This one would be Maggie finally getting really mad at the IRA after the Soviets push them into taking serious action against the Brits. Low level guerrilla war in the North, terrorist bombings in the UK, the whole bit.

God I loath the IRA and I loath the 'troubles'. The Irish just wallow in it, as if they're happier when they're miserable. Maybe its just an excuse to show Ingham torturing some IRA blokes.

God its a good idea, though and a WWIII take you've not seen before.

Think I'll go watch Patriot Games:

You're welcome.