"Ancillary casualties" (civilian deaths), "insurgents" (native people defending their homeland) and even "tactical nuclear weapons" (for which Fat Man and Little Boy both quality) are par for the course with the "Department of Defense," which so far since its creation from the War Department in 1949 has ONLY attacked.
This is old hat.
As Tim O'Brien wrote,
"A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil."
As two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner General Smedley Butler pointed out in 1933, war is a racket. It's also an American obsession. Where are the statues of pacifists and conscientious objectors?
Minor addition to a great note: "The The United States Department of War, also called the War Department, was the Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, also bearing responsibility for naval affairs until the establishment of the Navy Department in 1798, and for most land-based air forces until the creation of the Department of the Air Force on September 18, 1947.
The War Department existed from August 7, 1789 until September 18, 1947, when it split into the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force. The Department of the Army and Department of the Air Force later joined the Department of the Navy under the United States Department of Defense in 1949.
On July 26, 1947, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, which set up a unified military command known as the National Military Establishment and created the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, National Security Resources Board, United States Air Force, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The act placed the National Military Establishment under the control of a single secretary of defense. The National Military Establishment formally began operations on September 18, the day after the Senate confirmed James V. Forrestal as the first secretary of defense. The National Military Establishment was renamed the "Department of Defense" on August 10, 1949, and absorbed the three cabinet-level military departments, in an amendment to the original 1947 law. The story is the name was changed because the "National Military Establishment" abbreviation, NME, was being pronounced "enemy".
I have a great book by Hugh Rawson about doublespeak and euphemism that hits the US government pretty hard for things like "Flying Fortress" (what kind of fortress is used for attacking the enemy?) and all the different terms for "kill" and "war" (conflict, police action, and the new special operation). Non-aggressive words to couch aggressive, even murderous, activity.
I'll have to check Mr. Rawson's book out, sounds interesting. With regards to the B-17 Flying Fortress, it had to do with the ability of the B-17 to take an absolute pounding and keep flying. The interesting thing about the B-17 was you could actually take a cross-tip screwdriver and with enough force, jam it through the frame of the aircraft. That said, there are a thousand stories about B-17's being shot to pieces and still making it back to England. BTW, is Mr. Rawson's book available via Amazon?
Yes, it is. Out of print, but well worth finding. If you're interested in B-17s, I wrote a novel about a bombardier in the air war that includes a huge amount of research about the B-17 presented in a first-person narrative. The name came long before the B-17 ever saw combat, when Boeing unveiled its new design to the public in 1935. Richard Williams, a reporter for The Seattle Times, exclaimed, “Why, it's a flying fortress!” Boeing recognized the value of the name and had it trademarked.
Thank you for the excellent note and the amazing anecdote about the actual origin of the name "Flying Fortress." Will definitely hit the bookracks and see about the Rawson book. What is the title of your historical novel? I shall look for it as well. My two favorite WWII planes, the B-17 and the P-51. Not only were they amazing in their capabilities, they looked awesome as well. Big fan of the P-38 Lightning as well. My absolute favorite plane of all time is the SR-71; just an absolute titan when flying.
Excellent quote from Tim O'Brien, I've read a couple of his books and was lucky enough to have a conversation with him at a book signing here the Chicago area about 25 years ago, can it really be that long ago? I enjoyed his writing and his conversation, we evened shared a couple of Vietnam stories.
The Things They Carried is one of the greatest books about war, in my opinion. It's up there with Sledge's With the Old Breed and Michael Herr's Dispatches, especially because it talks about what happens afterward.
Viktor Frankl: "Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
Yes, war is hell but the fact remains it is often necessary when one nation state attempts to rob another and its people of their sovereign territory or freedom.
The Ukrainians have fought a nation four times larger with a military ten times better equipped to a standstill and with one arm tied with conditions from us and
NATO. Soon Trump will play God and deliver large portions to Russia as a “deal” to claim the crown as a peacemaker.
It will be the greatest betrayal of democracy in the 20th century right up there with the handover of Hong Kong.
Onr of the necessary conditions of isolationism is withdrawal from national intercoure with those of like mind. Putting the knife in Ukraine will send a clear message to the Russians and Chinese. The world is for the taking
"They teach about war to soldiers at places like West Point and the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy and the Command and General Staff College and the War College. They teach about war to civilians in the history departments of colleges..."
But sadly not in high schools or basic college courses, where the students who become political leaders should have learned enough to keep us from as many wars as we've seen.
So how did our current president-elect get to the head of the class?
Surely not because he is the sharpest pencil in the pack. No, no, no.
What's the real reason, if such a proof can be asserted.?
The old fashioned way: by being in the right place at the right time.
Right for him, bad for everybody else.
There's a small part of me, probably the bile duct, that actually feels sorry for his compatriots.
They're about to find out what it's like to work for a guy who's about to redefine what it once was to be human. For now, all bets are off (somewhere, somehow, there's a way to bet on this kind of thing)!
Heavy hangs the head of the king, but not soon enough for my tastes. The fact that we fail and fail and fail again is no reason to celebrate defeat. But that's exactly what we're doing, and it's a fruitless, salvage operation. Maybe some artist will duct tape a banana to a gallery wall and make a shit ton of money. Done. Maybe Banksy will come out of hiding and reveal himself to be a woman.
Maybe we get on with our lives and lose a few pounds worrying. Maybe we'll speculate about the ensuing catastrophes and write a series of books (fiction and non-fiction), with matching covers.
Maybe we'll discover who the next, best hero ,and be declared the next, best hero for pinning a metal on the next best hero. I think that's called self-gratification in what once passed for polite society.
Maybe we should hide under our desks and kiss our asses goodbye like we did in the good, old days of the Cold War. And maybe not. Was Heraclitus correct when he postulated that "The only thing constant is life is change, and further asserted that conflict was necessary and inevitable? Well then, get into a comfortable chair, turn off the tube and get ready to cry. There's no use kissing your ass good-bye if you can get someone else to do it. You're choice. See . . . it's not all that bad; we really do have choices to make.
Trump is a fiction created by those who use him now to achieve their Oligarchic ends.
He has NEVER been truly in control of his “political” career, nor of making the actual decisions his administration has wrought. He is a tool, and he is being masterfully wielded on the world stage … He’s supported by and manipulated by a power base “behind the curtain.” He is and has always been a tool {and, yes, I mean that in the sense both of being used AND being a dick… ]
Why is it that war "...is a place where we sadly must live, all of us."? What is it about us that renders war inevitable?
There are many similar questions regarding our species, who we really are and what we are capable of accomplishing at the societal level. I fear the answers are alarming.
As I understand it now both sides think Trump will end the war when he takes office on Jan. 20. Meanwhile each side is scrambling to hold on to as much of Ukraine as is possible in order to improve their negotiation posture. It's just such a tragedy that so many brave soldiers will die in the interim, for little apparent purpose. If peace and negotiation are inevitable do it now and get this over with. The saddest parts of any war are reading about the soldiers killed for no purpose once the leaders have already determined that the end is inevitable. Of course the main victims here are the brave people of the Ukraine who mistakenly thought they had an ally in the United States.
Many if not most of us are taught from the cradle to compete; our game players (gladiators) are hugely rewarded; we also worship our entertainers (jesters), paying them hugely. Thus, the maintenance of Payne's "splendid slavery of rank" continues to define the wobbles of the human journey.
I am leaning into the idea that war is part of the human instinct. What I visualize is ancient: one caveman bashing another on the head with a rock over (fill in the blank).
It doesn’t take a LOT of humans to bring on a war — A small number with power over large numbers … they can plunge millions into war. The millions might never have warred, if left to their own choices, but a few with the power … And how the powerful come to power. Mmm, there’s another conversation ….
That's not what I think. I think that early man was basically non-violent, unless a member of the group was mentally ill. Violence came into play, I think when there was a more stratified society, after people starting growing crops and living in fixed villages. Jericho, for example, had walls and defenses, and it is cited as one of the earliest fixed villages/towns. Of course, in an aside snark, it could be an early example of Palestinians defending themselves against an early invasion from Ur (Abraham and his descendants.)
With the current list of clowns from the televison world selected for Donald Trump's cabinet, I'm expect to hear that Sponge Bob Square Pants is to be the next selection.
Regarding Trump’s naïveté: ‘When they talk too much about peace, there’s sure to be a war.’ - a quote referring to politicians’ talk. From the excellent “A Narrow Street”/“The Last Time I Saw Paris”. Elliot Paul’s book about life on the rue de la Huchette in the 1920s and 1930s, and published in 1941.
I'm sure this war will soon be over. Drumpf and his sycophants will immediately stop sending military aid to Ukraine and allow Putin to take over the country.
Yes war is hell but how do we help Ukraine? We just can't let putin go about taking over whatever country he wants...But wait about two months - that is exactly what will happen.
And Russia has fired the following nuclear capable missiles into Ukraine:
"RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a Kh-47M2 Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile, and seven Kh-101 cruise missiles.
The RS-26 Rubezh is a ballistic missile designed to carry up to 1,200 kilograms and achieves speeds of Mach 5 or higher, making it extremely difficult to intercept with existing missile defense systems. The weapon has never before been used in combat and was developed relatively recently for the purpose of being able to defeat Western air defenses. It is also reported to be able to carry a hypersonic glide vehicle which would travel at speeds no existing interceptor missiles could match. The RS-26 can deploy four separate independently targetable nuclear warheads each with a destructive power many times that of Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal is a nuclear-capable, Russian air-launched ballistic missile and is designed to defeat sophisticated Western air defenses. After launch, it accelerates to Mach 4 (4,900 km/h), and may then reach speeds of up to Mach 10 (12,350 km/hr) as it plummets back to earth.. This speed, in combination with the missile’s erratic flight trajectory and high maneuverability, dramatically complicates interception.
The Kh-101 / Kh-102 is a family of both conventional and nuclear-capable air-launched cruise missiles (ALCM). While relatively slow, it is designed to penetrate Western defenses by flying so low it is below enemy radar systems. It can carry a 250 kt nuclear payload, 15 times as powerful as what we dropped on Japan. The Kh-102 missile can deliver that warhead to a target close to 3000 miles away and put it within 6 meters of the intended target."
Okay Team, the big question to ask is while attempting to allow Ukraine to defend itself better, did President Biden inadvertently raise the escalation bar too high?
For those of us who served during the Cold War, we know how Putin, being an old KGB hand, was trained and his actions are so true to form. Putin is 73 years old and he is willing to gamble if it gets the NATO community and other allies to back off. Buckle up, there are interesting times ahead.
Eagerly looking forward to Lucian's next newsletter.
Doublespeak is the lingua franca of war.
"Ancillary casualties" (civilian deaths), "insurgents" (native people defending their homeland) and even "tactical nuclear weapons" (for which Fat Man and Little Boy both quality) are par for the course with the "Department of Defense," which so far since its creation from the War Department in 1949 has ONLY attacked.
This is old hat.
As Tim O'Brien wrote,
"A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it. If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie. There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil."
As two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner General Smedley Butler pointed out in 1933, war is a racket. It's also an American obsession. Where are the statues of pacifists and conscientious objectors?
There is a statue of MLK Jr. in Washington DC. I hope to go see it before the MAGA invaders decide to tear it down.
Minor addition to a great note: "The The United States Department of War, also called the War Department, was the Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, also bearing responsibility for naval affairs until the establishment of the Navy Department in 1798, and for most land-based air forces until the creation of the Department of the Air Force on September 18, 1947.
The War Department existed from August 7, 1789 until September 18, 1947, when it split into the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force. The Department of the Army and Department of the Air Force later joined the Department of the Navy under the United States Department of Defense in 1949.
On July 26, 1947, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, which set up a unified military command known as the National Military Establishment and created the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, National Security Resources Board, United States Air Force, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The act placed the National Military Establishment under the control of a single secretary of defense. The National Military Establishment formally began operations on September 18, the day after the Senate confirmed James V. Forrestal as the first secretary of defense. The National Military Establishment was renamed the "Department of Defense" on August 10, 1949, and absorbed the three cabinet-level military departments, in an amendment to the original 1947 law. The story is the name was changed because the "National Military Establishment" abbreviation, NME, was being pronounced "enemy".
I have a great book by Hugh Rawson about doublespeak and euphemism that hits the US government pretty hard for things like "Flying Fortress" (what kind of fortress is used for attacking the enemy?) and all the different terms for "kill" and "war" (conflict, police action, and the new special operation). Non-aggressive words to couch aggressive, even murderous, activity.
I'll have to check Mr. Rawson's book out, sounds interesting. With regards to the B-17 Flying Fortress, it had to do with the ability of the B-17 to take an absolute pounding and keep flying. The interesting thing about the B-17 was you could actually take a cross-tip screwdriver and with enough force, jam it through the frame of the aircraft. That said, there are a thousand stories about B-17's being shot to pieces and still making it back to England. BTW, is Mr. Rawson's book available via Amazon?
Yes, it is. Out of print, but well worth finding. If you're interested in B-17s, I wrote a novel about a bombardier in the air war that includes a huge amount of research about the B-17 presented in a first-person narrative. The name came long before the B-17 ever saw combat, when Boeing unveiled its new design to the public in 1935. Richard Williams, a reporter for The Seattle Times, exclaimed, “Why, it's a flying fortress!” Boeing recognized the value of the name and had it trademarked.
Second reply: Are either one or both of these yours?
1. Hawser
2. The Ruining Heaven
Cheers!
Thank you for the excellent note and the amazing anecdote about the actual origin of the name "Flying Fortress." Will definitely hit the bookracks and see about the Rawson book. What is the title of your historical novel? I shall look for it as well. My two favorite WWII planes, the B-17 and the P-51. Not only were they amazing in their capabilities, they looked awesome as well. Big fan of the P-38 Lightning as well. My absolute favorite plane of all time is the SR-71; just an absolute titan when flying.
JHC.
Excellent quote from Tim O'Brien, I've read a couple of his books and was lucky enough to have a conversation with him at a book signing here the Chicago area about 25 years ago, can it really be that long ago? I enjoyed his writing and his conversation, we evened shared a couple of Vietnam stories.
The Things They Carried is one of the greatest books about war, in my opinion. It's up there with Sledge's With the Old Breed and Michael Herr's Dispatches, especially because it talks about what happens afterward.
Viktor Frankl: "Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
Yes, war is hell but the fact remains it is often necessary when one nation state attempts to rob another and its people of their sovereign territory or freedom.
The Ukrainians have fought a nation four times larger with a military ten times better equipped to a standstill and with one arm tied with conditions from us and
NATO. Soon Trump will play God and deliver large portions to Russia as a “deal” to claim the crown as a peacemaker.
It will be the greatest betrayal of democracy in the 20th century right up there with the handover of Hong Kong.
Onr of the necessary conditions of isolationism is withdrawal from national intercoure with those of like mind. Putting the knife in Ukraine will send a clear message to the Russians and Chinese. The world is for the taking
"They teach about war to soldiers at places like West Point and the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy and the Command and General Staff College and the War College. They teach about war to civilians in the history departments of colleges..."
But sadly not in high schools or basic college courses, where the students who become political leaders should have learned enough to keep us from as many wars as we've seen.
So how did our current president-elect get to the head of the class?
Surely not because he is the sharpest pencil in the pack. No, no, no.
What's the real reason, if such a proof can be asserted.?
The old fashioned way: by being in the right place at the right time.
Right for him, bad for everybody else.
There's a small part of me, probably the bile duct, that actually feels sorry for his compatriots.
They're about to find out what it's like to work for a guy who's about to redefine what it once was to be human. For now, all bets are off (somewhere, somehow, there's a way to bet on this kind of thing)!
Heavy hangs the head of the king, but not soon enough for my tastes. The fact that we fail and fail and fail again is no reason to celebrate defeat. But that's exactly what we're doing, and it's a fruitless, salvage operation. Maybe some artist will duct tape a banana to a gallery wall and make a shit ton of money. Done. Maybe Banksy will come out of hiding and reveal himself to be a woman.
Maybe we get on with our lives and lose a few pounds worrying. Maybe we'll speculate about the ensuing catastrophes and write a series of books (fiction and non-fiction), with matching covers.
Maybe we'll discover who the next, best hero ,and be declared the next, best hero for pinning a metal on the next best hero. I think that's called self-gratification in what once passed for polite society.
Maybe we should hide under our desks and kiss our asses goodbye like we did in the good, old days of the Cold War. And maybe not. Was Heraclitus correct when he postulated that "The only thing constant is life is change, and further asserted that conflict was necessary and inevitable? Well then, get into a comfortable chair, turn off the tube and get ready to cry. There's no use kissing your ass good-bye if you can get someone else to do it. You're choice. See . . . it's not all that bad; we really do have choices to make.
Trump is a fiction created by those who use him now to achieve their Oligarchic ends.
He has NEVER been truly in control of his “political” career, nor of making the actual decisions his administration has wrought. He is a tool, and he is being masterfully wielded on the world stage … He’s supported by and manipulated by a power base “behind the curtain.” He is and has always been a tool {and, yes, I mean that in the sense both of being used AND being a dick… ]
Why is it that war "...is a place where we sadly must live, all of us."? What is it about us that renders war inevitable?
There are many similar questions regarding our species, who we really are and what we are capable of accomplishing at the societal level. I fear the answers are alarming.
As I understand it now both sides think Trump will end the war when he takes office on Jan. 20. Meanwhile each side is scrambling to hold on to as much of Ukraine as is possible in order to improve their negotiation posture. It's just such a tragedy that so many brave soldiers will die in the interim, for little apparent purpose. If peace and negotiation are inevitable do it now and get this over with. The saddest parts of any war are reading about the soldiers killed for no purpose once the leaders have already determined that the end is inevitable. Of course the main victims here are the brave people of the Ukraine who mistakenly thought they had an ally in the United States.
The Ukraine war was fought in the USA ballot box. Russia won.
Many if not most of us are taught from the cradle to compete; our game players (gladiators) are hugely rewarded; we also worship our entertainers (jesters), paying them hugely. Thus, the maintenance of Payne's "splendid slavery of rank" continues to define the wobbles of the human journey.
There's more than 1 Ring
Master in Trump's 2025
Circus and we better not
forget that.
I am leaning into the idea that war is part of the human instinct. What I visualize is ancient: one caveman bashing another on the head with a rock over (fill in the blank).
It doesn’t take a LOT of humans to bring on a war — A small number with power over large numbers … they can plunge millions into war. The millions might never have warred, if left to their own choices, but a few with the power … And how the powerful come to power. Mmm, there’s another conversation ….
That's not what I think. I think that early man was basically non-violent, unless a member of the group was mentally ill. Violence came into play, I think when there was a more stratified society, after people starting growing crops and living in fixed villages. Jericho, for example, had walls and defenses, and it is cited as one of the earliest fixed villages/towns. Of course, in an aside snark, it could be an early example of Palestinians defending themselves against an early invasion from Ur (Abraham and his descendants.)
The jaw bine of an ass.
See opening of film 2001.
"Forever War"
With the current list of clowns from the televison world selected for Donald Trump's cabinet, I'm expect to hear that Sponge Bob Square Pants is to be the next selection.
Regarding Trump’s naïveté: ‘When they talk too much about peace, there’s sure to be a war.’ - a quote referring to politicians’ talk. From the excellent “A Narrow Street”/“The Last Time I Saw Paris”. Elliot Paul’s book about life on the rue de la Huchette in the 1920s and 1930s, and published in 1941.
I'm sure this war will soon be over. Drumpf and his sycophants will immediately stop sending military aid to Ukraine and allow Putin to take over the country.
Is there any way to stop the repeat?
Yes war is hell but how do we help Ukraine? We just can't let putin go about taking over whatever country he wants...But wait about two months - that is exactly what will happen.
And Russia has fired the following nuclear capable missiles into Ukraine:
"RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a Kh-47M2 Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile, and seven Kh-101 cruise missiles.
The RS-26 Rubezh is a ballistic missile designed to carry up to 1,200 kilograms and achieves speeds of Mach 5 or higher, making it extremely difficult to intercept with existing missile defense systems. The weapon has never before been used in combat and was developed relatively recently for the purpose of being able to defeat Western air defenses. It is also reported to be able to carry a hypersonic glide vehicle which would travel at speeds no existing interceptor missiles could match. The RS-26 can deploy four separate independently targetable nuclear warheads each with a destructive power many times that of Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
The Kh-47M2 Kinzhal is a nuclear-capable, Russian air-launched ballistic missile and is designed to defeat sophisticated Western air defenses. After launch, it accelerates to Mach 4 (4,900 km/h), and may then reach speeds of up to Mach 10 (12,350 km/hr) as it plummets back to earth.. This speed, in combination with the missile’s erratic flight trajectory and high maneuverability, dramatically complicates interception.
The Kh-101 / Kh-102 is a family of both conventional and nuclear-capable air-launched cruise missiles (ALCM). While relatively slow, it is designed to penetrate Western defenses by flying so low it is below enemy radar systems. It can carry a 250 kt nuclear payload, 15 times as powerful as what we dropped on Japan. The Kh-102 missile can deliver that warhead to a target close to 3000 miles away and put it within 6 meters of the intended target."
Okay Team, the big question to ask is while attempting to allow Ukraine to defend itself better, did President Biden inadvertently raise the escalation bar too high?
For those of us who served during the Cold War, we know how Putin, being an old KGB hand, was trained and his actions are so true to form. Putin is 73 years old and he is willing to gamble if it gets the NATO community and other allies to back off. Buckle up, there are interesting times ahead.
Eagerly looking forward to Lucian's next newsletter.