Olivia Garard

It really shouldn’t have taken so long.

"...that it can maintain itself in a state of perfect readiness to engage in war immediately and decisively and win a total victory soon after the outbreak without destroying its own economy, pauperizing its own people, and promoting interior disorder."

-- 'Men Against Fire', SLA Marshall (1947)

"The belief in push-button war is fundamentally a fallacy. But it is not a new fallacy. It is simply an age-old fallacy in modern dress. There is one controlling truth from all past wars which applies with equal weight to any war of tomorrow. No nation on earth possess such limitless resources... /1

Spectacular.

Thinking about Odysseus‘ slaughter of the Suitors and how the only reason the Odyssey doesn’t become the Iliad at the end is Athena’s intervention and then Zeus’ bolt from the blue.

In other words the problem of 1.1.9 in On War: the result is never absolute.

For years on my old blog I published the names of servicemembers who died in Iraq & Afghanistan. No other outlets were.

These are the first 4 Americans to die in the Iran War.
Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35
Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42
Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39
Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20

* Taps sign *

This is such a sick burn if you know you know.

Oldie: The Psychology of Military Incompetence by Dixon

Critique: Pois and Langer’s Command Failure in War.

Carl was already there. The primary fault of the commander is Eigensinn — lit. “own sense,” aka unresponsive to the actuality of the world; “authoritarianism” (D) or ”inflexibility“ (P&L)

Had some friends ask if they need to watch the last two World Wars to catch up before this one, but I told them they can probably stick to the Gulf War spin-off series if they're short on time

they should rename it in OVERCOM

h/t to the political scientists who still cannot classify this as war until we reach 1000 battlefield casualties

War is the continuation of changing talking points about political objectives, but also awesome. #Winning
- Carl von Clausewitz

The Chinese are watching, learning.

If amateurs study tactics, and professionals study logistics, someone, anyone really, should pay attention to munitions (magazine depth).

“Everything is very simple in war, but the simplest thing is difficult.”

To continue a theme from yesterday, if we’re going to send officers to higher education send them literally anywhere that doesn’t teach the three levels of war and strategy as ends-ways-means. All we’re really doing is reinforcing the same failed ideas.

Surprise you have bazillion new followers.

Vet 1: "I was in OEF"

Vet 2: "Which one?"

So, war.

Oh, word?

Need more Boyd for your #weekend #reading? Then grab “Snowmobiles and Grand Ideals” w/ @Osinga10–it’s the definitive work capturing John Boyd’s ideas on survival & conflict. Also free from Marine Corps University Press
Download: www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/...
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The narrative that eighteenth-century soldiers were slow moving, ineffective automata who were only capable of engaging the enemy at insanely close range and quickly moved into hand-to-hand combat is one of the most widespread and damaging myths in military history. 1/6

“We begin to be philosophers by recognizing our masters: too often we are confirmed as philosophers by quarreling with them.”

- W. B. Gallie, Philosophy and The Historical Understanding

What do awards look like now? Likes and reposts?!

High recommend. It’s like Forrest Gump but for China and WWII.

Image shows four copies of the new book The Code of the Warrior, by Shannon E French, third edition, out with Bloomsbury press (2025). The cover is gold with white and black lettering, and has pictures of a battle axe, a katana, an assegai, and an assault rifle. The books are propped up on a dark green velvet couch.

Shameless self promotion, but hopefully forgivable, given the moment we’re in right now. Military ethics is under grave threat. SecDef Hegseth is perverting the “warrior ethos” and putting the mental, moral, and spiritual health of all U.S. service members in jeopardy.

On “modern so-called incomprehensible poetry”:

“it's like it's something you have to understand with something other than intelligence, or your mind,”