Florian smiled around the edge of his beer and said, wryly, “We Swiss are not pacifists because we are weak; it’s because we were rental soldiers in the dark age and renaissance. Fighting for your own selfish reasons is bad marketing.”
About a decade ago, I did a series of talks at various conferences entitled “cyberwar is bullshit” – the problem, I felt, was that the US was talking about being deeply afraid of cyberattack from Eurasia (or was it Eastasia?) but there was considerable irresponsible talk about “weapons of mass destruction-like capability.” Industry insiders like myself wound up divided as to whether it was likely/practical, or good marketing/a chance to make a fast buck. There were a lot of fast bucks made.
I was struck speechless to read that the Iraqi army has brought its handful of TOS-1 “Buratino” thermobaric rocket launchers into the field at Mosul.
A few years ago, I read a book about the big terrorist bombing in New York. You know, the one in 1920. And it got me interested in the turmoil of the time – a time when, largely due to the depression, Americans were realizing that capitalism wasn’t quite their friend after all. So I wound up reading about the bonus army and how they were suppressed with cavalry and tanks commanded by heroes.
My dad, the real historian in the family, used to say that the history of a time cannot really be told until all the bodies are buried and the forgotten memoirs come bubbling to the surface. When he first told me that, as a kid, I wasn’t really ready to understand him.
September 26, 1983, I was a sophomore, which meant that the day probably passed in a blur for me. I had a routine: coffee and donuts at the snackery in the student union, then to the computer terminal room to check my email.
This one’s a bit tough. Hanna Reitsch was simultaneously a very complicated, and a very simple person: she loved to fly and would pretty much love anyone who let her fly – and the person who gave her airplanes was Hitler.
But, holy shit, could she fly.
Imagine if Mexico decided the US needed “regime change” after Donald Trump gets elected, and then began destabilizing the country by pouring weapons and support to anti-government militias. But then, the Cliven Bundy militia in Utah breaks away and begins trying to establish the sovereign state of Utah. So the Mexican air force begins launching air strikes against the Bundyites. The US, to counter-balance the Mexicans, invite the Canadians to help. Then ensues a crazy proxy war, with the Mexicans bombing parts of Utah while the Canadians are bombing the Mexican-sponsored insurgency. Somehow none of this is warfare. It’s just a great big bomb-b-que or something.
The national security state has, to put it mildly, “flipped its shit” over Edward Snowden. And in information security, where I work, it’s become de rigeur to call Snowden’s actions a wake-up call. But, really? It’s more like a snooze alarm.
Allepo, before and during “regime change.”