Inch is killing it

Go to his blog, every day.

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War films

Here is a list of war films the writer considers “great”.  Frankly, with the exception of Apocalypse Now, I agree. (Apocalypse Now has some great scenes, but I’d argue it isn’t a great movie.)  I’d move Das Boot up from an honorable mention.

Walking the dog #1

I’ve been a cat person most of my life.  While, my family had a small dog or two when I was younger, I’ve never really been a dog person, until recently.  About a year or so ago, my older daughter’s desire for a dog could be put off no longer and the modelwife and the girls adopted Charlie, who is a very good dog.

Charlie

One thing that comes with dog ownership is walking the dog.  It has the virtue of getting me out and moving when the weather is nice and getting me the exercise that I might not otherwise get.

Well, as I was walking the dog the other night, I was thinking about the recent incident in Russia wherein an explosion took place and radiation was released.  As I’ve said before, I think that Russia is, pretty much, a paper tiger, though one with nukes.  Russia doesn’t have the money to maintain the forces it does have, much less a bunch of extra money to pour into weapons development.  This makes the attempt to develop a hypersonic, nuclear powered cruise missile all the more irrational, or does it?

This is the thought that occurred to me as I was walking Charlie.  Because Russia is so cash starved, deep down they know that they can’t keep up conventionally.  In fact, their attempt to prop up their man in Syria is a drain on their meager resources.  Given this situation, investing in “Hail Mary” types of technological leaps makes a certain sense.  Very similar to what Germany did in the latter stages of WWII, pouring money into the V-1, V-2, etc.  It is even possible, but unlikely that one of these long shot investments might pay off and result in a great leap forward that staves off impending Russian military irrelevance.  I doubt it, but you can’t completely discount the possibility.  Viewed in that light, the recent radiological incident makes a bit of sense.

Maybe all is not lost

This is a good sign.  Maybe the current generation isn’t as hopeless as we think.

More Russian vaporware

Story here.  As usual, I don’t believe we will ever see this, thought I do ultimately think this is the wave of the future.  I also think robotic vehicles, UAVs and soldiers will make war more likely, not less likely.

Amazing

Welcome home. Rest easy.

Something is broken

with the US Navy procurement system. (Army and Air Force too)  This needs to get fixed now.  We are going to have lean budgets ahead.  We can’t afford to continue pouring money down a rat hole.  If this isn’t fixed now, it will eventually cost lives down the road.

 

Its getting warm all over

No, I am not talking about the weather.  South Korea firing warning shots at the Russians.  Yeah, what the hell, that is going to end well.

 

 

Good news?

This seems like good news.

Unsustainable

Japan is in demographic free-fall.  At this rate China won’t have to take any action, they’ll just wait until Japan is to weak to respond.  Given that Japan is the strongest US ally in the region, this has a long-term impact on US policy as well.