Be fearful. Since I don’t play the usual lottery, the only kind I could win is the kind that they use to draft people for fighting alien invaders.
PROMPT: Lottery
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Category Archives: War
PROMPT: Uninvent
As nuclear weapons may yet be the death of us all, they would be a sound candidate. But I think it’s utter fantasy to think that a possible technology can be anything more than delayed. Besides, once GAI (general artificial intelligence) starts freeballing it’ll inevitably stumble onto a mode of death that makes the H-bomb look like a caveman’s campfire by comparison.
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DAILY PHOTO: National World War II Museum
BOOK REVIEW: “War is a Racket” by Smedley D. Butler
War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America’s Most Decorated Soldier by Smedley D. ButlerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
PDF available online
This impassioned essay is a call for a more restrained — some would call it isolationist — application of military force. Regardless of how one might feel about the isolationist stance, you’ll likely be moved by the essay’s central premise that we have too much war because it’s profitable — not profitable for those who fight and die in wars but for businessmen and politicians.
Butler, a US Marine Corps General, was a fascinating character — a two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient who served in the Philippines, Tianjin (during the Boxer Rebellion,) at various places across Central America and the Caribbean, and in the First World War in Europe. He was also a whistleblower about a plot to unseat FDR. Butler writes in a conversational style that exudes a commanding presence.
I’d highly recommend this essay for its critical insights by one of the most impressive Marine Corp officers of all time.
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BOOK: “Mastering the Art of War” by Zhuge Liang & Liu Ji [Trans. & Ed. by Thomas Cleary
Mastering the Art of War: Commentaries on Sun Tzu’s Classic by Zhuge LiangMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Site — Shambhala
This book combines the writings of two prominent Chinese strategists, Zhuge Liang and Liu Ji. Both men came after Sunzi, author of The Art of War, and Cleary describes these two works as commentaries on the work of Sunzi.
Zhuge Liang’s piece is called The Way of the General and it collects short essays from Records of the Loyal Lord of Warriors. Like many, I first became acquainted with Zhuge Liang from his novelized personage in the Chinese classic, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in which he is called “Kongming” and is a force to be reckoned with in service to Liu Bei of the Shu Kingdom. Zhuge Liang’s ideas are conveyed as short topical discussions, not unlike Sunzi’s work.
Liu Ji’s manual, Lessons of War, is a bit different in that the explanation of the strategy is briefer than in the works of Sunzi or Zhuge Liang, but Liu Ji always includes an exemplary story from history. This makes Liu Ji’s work a little more narrative. It is interesting to see the varied approach to conveyance of the concepts under consideration.
Because the works of Zhuge Liang and Liu Ji are thin, the book has a fair amount of padding in the form of Translator’s Introductions, both an overall Introduction and one per included work. I was happy with how these were done. They do not drone on but rather give some background that will be useful to the average reader without getting lost in the weeds.
If you’re interested in strategy, be it applicable to war or otherwise, I’d highly recommend this book.
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BOOK: Sát Thát by Lê Vân [Illustrated by Nguyễn Bích]
Sát Thát by Lê VânMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – Kim Dong Books
This illustrated book tells the story of the Vietnamese (Tran Dynasty) victories over the invading Yuan Dynasty (Mongolian-controlled China.) It’s a quick read with only a few lines of text per page, while the bulk of each page is a line-drawn monochrome illustration. The illustrations themselves are sufficiently clear and detailed to allow one to follow the general flow of the story.
I used a translator and don’t know how accurate it was or –more particularly — how true to the original it was, except to say that the translator produced a coherent story that seemed to be consistent with other sources.
This book focuses entirely on the military campaigns and takes a bit of a jingoistic tone. As I understand it, it doesn’t tell the whole tale as many consider the Mongol incursions to have been successful because they exacted a tribute from the Vietnamese (which was their ultimate goal,) despite the Mongols’ lack of military success. That said, it was an impressive set of military victories for the Tran Dynasty, and the Vietnamese have every right to take pride in them.
I discovered this book in the publisher’s bookstore in Hanoi and thought it was a small enough text with sufficiently detailed illustration to give me some insight into the story, even without any real grasp of the language. I did find reading the book to be informative and interesting and would recommend it for readers military history.
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DAILY PHOTO: Quán Thánh Temple, Hanoi
DAILY PHOTO: Scenes from the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea
BOOKS: “Lost in the Twentieth Century” by Albert Szent-Györgyi
Lost in the Twentieth Century by Albert Szent-GyörgyiMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Available Online – NIH National Library of Medicine
This is the very brief autobiography of a fascinating man. Szent-Györgyi is most famous for work in biochemistry involving Vitamin C, work that won him a Nobel Prize. However, his life is not only notable for science before and after the Nobel (after he worked on the physiology of muscular activity, on electron activity in physiology, and on cancer.) He also performed important works outside the laboratory, notably he conducted an espionage / diplomatic mission during the Second World War (“Espionage” in that he traveled to Turkey under false pretenses, under cover of giving a lecture at a university, “diplomatic” in that the trip’s true objective was to negotiate with the Allied powers.)
Szent-Györgyi has some interesting quips and insights that make it worth reading this pamphlet-scale book, even though his Wikipedia page probably contains as much information. He had an interesting way of thinking about matters, both scientific and not, and was politically and socially engaged in the world.
If you’re curious about Szent-Györgyi or enjoy biographies, in general, I’d highly recommend reading this one.
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“Fast Rode the Knight” by Stephen Crane [w/ Audio]
Fast rode the knight
With spurs, hot and reeking,
Ever waving an eager sword,
"To save my lady!"
Fast rode the knight,
And leaped from saddle to war.
Men of steel flickered and gleamed
Like riot of silver lights,
And the gold of the knight's good banner
Still waved on a castle wall.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
A horse,
Blowing, staggering, bloody thing,
Forgotten at foot of castle wall.
A horse
Dead at foot of castle wall.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 