09/13/15

Blundering Into War — Syria, the United States, Russia

Big Red Car here. Here being the peaceful ATX — Austin by God Texas.

Wishing the world nothing but peace on this lovely sunny Texas day.

We have an incredibly large opportunity to blunder our way into an armed confrontation in the Middle East — well, two actually.

The first is the dog meat agreement with Iran.

The more subtle one is the situation in Syria. Continue reading

04/19/15

Where Does Failed Diplomacy Leave Us?

Big Red Car here. The Boss is in Cashiers, NC enjoying the rain.

Nice road trip with a delightful Cajun dinner in Monroe, Louisiana. The spiciest Cajun food ever but the mud bugs, jambalaya, crawfish etouffe — cher, that it the real deal.

So today we talk about diplomacy and what happens when it fails.

Enemy advancing, retreat
Enemy entrenched, harass
Enemy exhausted, attack
Enemy retreat, pursue

Who said that, beloved reader and what does it mean? First commenter to get it right gets a $50 gift certificate to Red Lobster.  Continue reading

02/12/15

Social Media and the Internet Go To War

Big Red Car here. Another beauty in the ATX. Ahhh, thank you, God!

So, The Boss was chatting with one of his trade school buddies. “Trade school” is what you call VMI, West Point, Air Force Academy, Annapolis, Citadel and other military schools. It is an inside joke amongst trade school grads.

They get on the subject of asymmetrical warfare — fancy word for terrorism and the whole Middle East mess. Lump in Al Qaeda, ISIL, Boko Horam and the flavor of the day shitheads.

Social media and the role of the Internet bubbles to the surface. Continue reading

04/17/14

World War III

Big Red Car here.  Nice weather all week in the ATX.  Bad situation getting worse in the Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

There are those students of history who will opine the seeds for World War II were planted when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced on 30 September 1938 he and a fellow named Adolph Hitler had achieved “…peace in our time…” by their signing of the Munich Agreement.  The results thereafter would prove Chamberlain to be wrong, very wrong.  The world would be plunged into seven years of conflict culminating with the US unleashing nuclear weapons on the Japanese in 1945.

Continue reading