February newsletter – The Consequences of Kinetic Diplomacy
January 1, 2025, began with a terrorist incident in New Orleans. A former US Army soldier conducted a “lone wolf” attack by driving his pickup truck into the crowd on Bourbon Street during the early morning hours. When the truck became immobilized, he began firing a semiautomatic rifle into the crowd….
The Persistent Threat
January 1, 2025, began with a terrorist incident in New Orleans. A former US Army soldier conducted a “lone wolf” attack by driving his pickup truck into the crowd on Bourbon Street during the early morning hours. When the truck became immobilized, he began firing a semiautomatic rifle into the crowd….
22 Souls
The film “The Best Years of Our Lives,” released in 1947, was an early attempt to show the effects of long-term stress and combat on the psyche of the service member. It may be the first time that a film portrayed, in an understandable way, the condition we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Remembering Pearl Harbor
On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, the first bombs fell on Pearl Harbor just before 8 o’clock. In the first wave of the attack, 183 planes swarmed the unsuspecting base, home of the US Pacific Fleet. At 8:10, a 1,700lb armor-piercing bomb penetrated the deck of the USS Arizona, detonating the forward ammunition magazine. The mighty battleship sank into the mud, taking over 1,000 sailors with her.
Recalling Flanders Fields
At the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the guns fell silent. For four long years, the war that was ignited with a pistol shot in Serbia, raged around the globe. Millions perished…. The fighting was brutal, the conditions horrifying, and the gains marginal. Yet no one dared to quit, to look for a path to peace.
The China Problem
Throughout the Cold War, both the US and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) competed for global influence. Most of the competition was through diplomatic, economic and other indirect methods. Espionage was rampant on both sides, as each sought to find and gain advantage.
Russian Threats and Warnings
From the 1950’s through the end of the Cold War in 1989, both the US and USSR regularly crossed airspace boundaries. Sometimes there were inadvertent crossings, while at other times the action was deliberate. Both adversaries used these incursions to test air defenses, evaluate electronic countermeasures, or conduct reconnaissance missions.
Mind Control and the CIA
Brainwashing has long been a subject of science fiction novels, spy stories and Hollywood features. However, the records from MK Ultra that survived show that CIA researchers were successful in many cases. CIA doctors successfully implanted false memories and convinced subjects that events in their lives had never occurred.