Cultural

Memorial Day Post

Submitted by GaryGagliardi on

Rather than a normal post about the breaking news, to honor Memorial Day and those that have died in service to America and freedom, I want to comment on a number of quotes about war:
"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. " George Orwell
For all those who think ending war is the best of all possible outcomes.
Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come. Carl Sandburg
And if that war is in the fight for freedom, this is a tragedy beyond all comprehension.

The Worldwide War Against the Elites

Submitted by GaryGagliardi on

What do the new European bureaucracy, Hollywood, academia, the Mainstream Media, professional environmentalism, activist judges, middle-east dictators, and terrorists have in common? They are all forms of elitism battling against the freedom of the common folk for control government. It doesn't matter if the basis of your elitism is some personal fantasy of moral, military, or intellectual superiority. You know you are an elitist when you don't think that the regular folk should decide what is in their best interests.

Space: The NEXT Strategic Frontier

Submitted by GaryGagliardi on

A reader, Apollo, writes:
Gary I would like to bring this article to your attention from the heritage foundation, what do you think is are the implications of the weponization of space and how should the U.S. handle it? "Weaponization of Space: Designing a U.S. Military Policy Toward Space That Is Based on Reality "
The authors start this article by saying the those against weapons in space start with a worldview that have the following attributes:
Attribute #1: Space is not yet weaponized.

Re-Branding America

Submitted by GaryGagliardi on

This article on the attempt to re-brand America in the Middle East hits me as very wrong-headed. I read it because of the many connections of Sun Tzu's strategic idea of positioning in modern marketing and warfare, but this article highlights the misconceptions that make so much modern marketing a waste of time. It also points to many of the misconceptions that get nations into trouble. For example:

The New Democratic Message and a Unifying Philosophy

Submitted by GaryGagliardi on

I would love to get onto more sophisticated concepts in this blog, but the big newsmakers keep making the same basic strategic mistakes so I, like Sisyphus, am doomed to keep pushing the same rock up the same hill. A good example is the new Democratic mantra "Our views are right correct; it is our message that it wrong."

Flaws Come from Virtues Taken to an Extreme

Submitted by GaryGagliardi on

One of the most interesting aspects of Sun Tzu's work on strategy is his perception that fatal flaws come not from the absence of virtue, but by virtues taken to extremes. Sun Tzu's lists five characteristics required for leadership (intelligence, courage, etc.). Limitations in those characteristics may limit your progress, but it is the excesses of those characteristics that can get you into real trouble. For example, the excess of courage is fearlessness, which is literally blind to trouble.

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