Ian TB

PDF’s free and available online while you wait for a hard copy.

MCUP read my mind, restocking “Snowmobiles and Grand Ideals” just as my first box ran out! It’s the definitive John Boyd—600 pages of him in his own words that you won’t find anywhere else.
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Not yet performed when I wrote that piece in 2018.

I’m happy to share URLs to the other things I’ve written/spoken on Boyd in the last 8 years as well, if it helps.

Between 2018 and 2026. So if you want the ground truth on what Boyd thought about Clausewitz, then I would ignore my article in 2018 and read “Snowmobiles and Grand Ideals” instead, because “Snowmobiles” is 600 pages of Boyd in his own words, and represents 8 years of intervening research that I had

Focusing on new insights I pulled out as I studied him.

So at the risk of repeating what I said in that early Strategy Bridge article: if you freeze my own thinking and interpretation of Boyd in March, 2018, then you’re not taking in how my own understanding, and interpretation, of Boyd grew

Book on Boyd and Boyd’s influence on the Marine Corps, after I’d done additional archival research. And then it took me several more years to finish my “definitive Boyd” book which is the one I linked to above. I had some separate articles and podcasts on Boyd in the intervening years as well,

Oh neat, I actually wrote that article too, so I believe I can comment with some confidence on it, and the work I’ve done in the intervening years.

I wrote that piece 8 years ago, when I was still early into my research & publishing on Boyd. That article came out 9 months before my first published

And to be fair, most of what Boyd said or thought has been difficult to access (though not impossible, to those willing to do some work).

Anyway, I’ve removed that excuse:

www.usmcu.edu/Outreach/Mar...

I’d encourage everyone here to read this cover to cover:

www.usmcu.edu/Outreach/Mar...

I’m curious—did you read this, cover to cover, before writing the headline?

www.usmcu.edu/Outreach/Mar...

I’ve said this before, in many places, so it’s not new but you follow the laws of war for two reasons: to win the peace, and ensure that when the war’s over, when you look in the mirror you don’t see a monster looking back at you.

The standard military answer is “it depends.” For JDAMs and LGBs, you can get a little more stand-off from the target, but even for those—and for unguided munitions—very high altitudes cause all those problems you just mentioned. But it’s low enough that MANPADS become a real problem.

The first few days of this war.

Hard-pressed to tell whether it was a JDAM or dumb bomb.

The real concern here is that because these aren’t true stand-off munitions, aircraft will have to get much closer—and lower—to targets to effectively deliver them. And that’s when we’ll see how much of Iran’s MANPADS inventory survived

As a former JTAC I think it should be noted that unguided bombs can still be delivered with a significant degree of precision thanks to the onboard systems of the aircraft delivering them. Those systems can calculate ballistic trajectories so accurate that when the bomb hits the target, you’d be

Today is our 14th birthday.

From making your dad lose his mind, to embarrassing members of Congress and the Presidential cabinet, we can't thank all of you enough for your inability to read past the headline.

We'd be nothing without our readers.

Here's to 14 more.

#ICYMI: check out @Mountain_Navy’s review of my #ManeuverWarfare #wargame from @thedietzfoundation.bsky.social at @armchairdragoons.bsky.social:

armchairdragoons.com/rev-manwar/

Still need a copy? Order here!

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Many thanks to Rocky Mountain Navy for his review of my #ManeuverWarfare #cardgame #wargame from @thedietzfoundation.bsky.social! Check it out at @armchairdragoons.bsky.social:

armchairdragoons.com/rev-manwar/

Any time someone says “XYZ is the [insert adjective here] in history,” it’s a good indication they don’t know any history and can’t be bothered to learn.

Want to get scared even more shitless
Without naval magazine depth, play a scenario in Littoral Commander, where in 12 hours you’re out of schlitz in basically everything

So we’re going to abandon the Iranian people, after calling for them to rise up, for the second time in two months.

We’ve had all these McDonald’s happy meal cards for ages and I figured it was time to tie it all together.

Heaven help me, what have I gotten me and my son into…

Nothing ever ends.

Top 10 countries Trump will send you to attack rather than release the Epstein files White House sources say ‘bombing foreigners’ remains preferred transparency substitute

Check another one off the list:

www.duffelblog.com/top-10-count...

The author was my predecessor at the Krulak Center. Proud to know him and proud he wrote this:

There’s Friday Night Fights…then there’s Friday Night Spreadsheet-Building For Future Fights #wargaming

If you want the wave-tops of “Snowmobiles and Grand Ideals,” you can get the highlights courtesy of @cascaderifles from the Maneuver Warfare Symposium last December:

youtu.be/YzKiZxlnMjI?...

Or maybe break out your copy of #ManeuverWarfare from @thedietzfoundation.bsky.social for #weekend #wargaming. Haven’t order it yet? Then get your copy now!
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