what is this place, with its defensive bunkers on every rise? lasting vestiges of war, so unlike my childhood home.
Pillbox Kitsch [Tanka]
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Category Archives: Military
Fields of the Dead [Free Verse]
It's a beautiful day
in the graveyard.
Blue skies.
Cool, but not cold.
The ideal temperature
to be an overdressed military man.
Do ghosts amble among the stones
on days like these?
I imagine most of these men died
on quite different kinds of days:
Rainy, cold, muddy days.
Muggy, buggy, malarial days.
The kind of day that just won't end,
but to fold into a sleepless night.
How many died,
not from spall or Minié balls,
but because they just didn't have the will
to drag themselves through another day?
from exhaustion?
from demoralization?
How many died under beautiful blue skies
on an idyllic autumn day?
I don't know whether
there're good days to die,
and even less whether
there're good days to be dead.
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Tiny Tank [Free Verse]
Someone put a tiny, limp-gunned tank
on Danube west bank --
in Budapest, opposite Parliament.
Unsubtle symbolism, indeed,
but worth noting:
The might of violence
made feeble in the face of democracy,
and all that.
So true,
and yet so few
seem to believe it.
We seem to believe
that matching savagery
is the key to strategy
in opposing the extreme,
but then we've really just made more
extremism, haven't we?
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DAILY PHOTO: Indian Weapon Display
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DAILY PHOTO: Thunderbirds
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BOOK REVIEW: Military Strategy: A Very Short Introduction by Antulio J. Echevarria II
Military Strategy: A Very Short Introduction by Antulio J. Echevarria IIMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
This concise guide to military strategy is well-organized and can be readily understood by an amateur reader. The book provides an overview of the domain of military strategy by comparing and contrasting related pairs of strategic paradigms.
After an overview chapter (ch. 1) that broadly defines the subject and lays out the organization for the rest of the book, chapter two explores strategies of annihilation and how they are similar to and different from strategies of dislocation. Chapter three investigates attrition and exhaustion, strategies that deal in destroying warfighting resources and will to fight, respectively. Chapter four elucidates how the threat of force can be used to keep the enemy from making a move (deterrence,) or force them to make a desired move (coercion.) Chapter five looks at strategies that rely on instilling fear to change an opponent’s behavior, including aerial bombardment and terrorist tactics. Chapter six considers different approaches to using selective targeting to achieve strategic goals: i.e. decapitation and targeted killing. The penultimate chapter (ch. 7) contrasts the various approaches to cyber warfare with cyber-power, more generally.
The final chapter (ch. 8) briefly examines the determinants of success and failure of military strategy.
The book is straightforward and uses historical cases to provide clear examples of each type of strategy. It doesn’t go much beyond definition and some classic examples, but it is an excellent starting point for organizing one’s thoughts on the topic in preparation to learn more.
If you’re in need of a concise overview of (or refresher on) military strategy, this is a fine guide to consider.
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DAILY PHOTO: Gorkha Monuments
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Bishkek Limerick
There was a diligent soldier from Bishkek whose boots never saw as much as a speck, but marching to the flagpole he showed scuffs on the sole, and the Sergeant said, "Your uniform 's a wreck!"
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DAILY PHOTO: F-35 with Vapor Cone
DAILY PHOTO: Vietnam Military History Museum
Taken in December of 2015 in Hanoi
Tiger Riding for Beginners 