Tim Mathews

Does “stand with them” mean moral support? Or something more than that?

“Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife” could be the title of a book about armies as learning organizations during counterinsurgencies. It could also be a story about me packing my lunch and, nearly every day, forgetting to include a spoon.

It really is low security. In 2001, we did our mobilization training there for a Bosnia deployment. Several of us were looking for a vending machine during a break and we accidentally broke in to the prison.

Yup. It’s been this way for a long time, though to a worse degree today. When I did IOBC in 2000, it was a 4-month pre-Ranger because the worst thing an infantry officer could do was show up to his first assignment w/out a tab. It could be the difference between getting a platoon or being ass’t S1.

I think that’s a good analogy. It’s also in the ballpark of what many of today’s Rs have in mind when they talk about American once being great.

Not here to debate fascism vs authoritarianism, but there are absolutely people - especially federal employees - deleting accounts and attempting to sanitize their digital lives because they’ve seen peers fired for comments that political appointees don’t agree with.

Reminder that there are streaming church services beginning pretty much anytime today that works for you. Here are a few with start times at 8:00, 8:55, 9:00, 9:15, 10:45, 11:00, 11:30, and 12:00 (all times eastern).

(Updated times and links)

We still do this, and not just with rucking. I had to shut down a plan to do a Murph for PT with soldiers who hadn’t performed a pull up in at least a month.
I have to constantly explain to people if you want to be hard and do hard stuff, then you need to do the hard work of preparing for it.

Yup. I called in a daytime airstrike on an (abandoned) youth center in the middle of a city. 8 dudes inside were using it as an assault by fire position. The BDE CDR appointed an investigation. The IO gathered facts and preserved evidence. It had no effect on my ability to continue the mission.

My 7-months-pregnant wife tried to explain lactation to our kids. My son’s response was to walk away and see if he could milk a pig on Minecraft.

Survey: Evangelicals Contradict Their Own Convictions - Christianity Today A new State of Theology report shows consensus around core beliefs but also lots of confusion.

“Somehow, 28 percent of evangelicals, who all said they ‘trust in Jesus Christ alone’ for salvation, agreed with half the country that Jesus was a great teacher but not God.”

That could partially explain our current moment.
www.christianitytoday.com/2025/10/stat...

This is going to be very niche, but I just want to publicly say that 5k is not a mile.

I asked my son what he did today. He said he went to school, played on the playground, and came home.

“Nothing different or exciting?”

“No.”

My wife sent me a video of him brushing a horse and feeding it a carrot.

Also, that was driven by political leaders and senior leaders, not driven by risk aversion of the rank and file. Over half of my job leading infantrymen in combat was to stop them from being reckless and dying needlessly. They were plenty aggressive and all too willing to risk life and limb.

The federal government is having a normal one. Just got an email from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs blaming the Democrat Party for the government shutdown and saying some services may be disrupted as a result. I guess their ethics advisors got furloughed.

One of the best NCOs I ever worked with retired a few years ago. Just before 9/11, a judge gave him the option of joining the Army or going to jail (for cocaine distribution). Until I met him, I thought “go to war or go to jail” was just an old cadence, not a real thing.

YouTube caves to government pressure and insists it is a commitment to free speech. Because nothing says “free speech” like handing a platform to whomever the government says you must hand a platform to.

Lawyers don’t overrule or throw an “illegal” flag and force a halt to operations. They advise, like every other staff officer. Commanders consider advice of the attorney, just as they consider intel assessments, advice of planners, and input of subordinate commanders. Lawyers don’t command.
(5/5)

I don’t think it was intended, but this advances the myth that lawyers are stopping commanders from doing “what is necessary.”

This feeds into the “stabbed in the back” myth of politicians and lawyers losing wars by tying commanders hands and making us weak.
(4/5)

I’m not disputing that it would most likely violate LoAC. My issue is that he says “our lawyers won’t let us do that.”

Lawyers advise. We have no authority to stop a commander from doing anything. We never have. We never will.
(3/5)

Here’s the exchange:

Host: “… if somebody attacks our hospital system, are we gonna feel really okay with shutting down some essential functions at all the hospitals in Beijing?”

Guest: “Our lawyers won't let us do that… Because it violates the law of armed conflict.”
(2/5)

The Hack Is Coming From Inside the House Podcast Episode · Shield of the Republic · 09/29/2025 · 47m

I recently started listening to Shield of the Republic podcast. It’s fine. But today, one exchange on the show irked me, (1) because it’s incorrect, and (2) it propagates incorrect myths about legal advisors to military commanders.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
(1/5)

National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders Honored for rejecting illegal orders during martial law, Marine death probe

The South Korean Ministry of Defense has awarded medals of merit to 11 officers for disobeying direct orders of superiors during the martial law fiasco, orders that they deemed to be contrary to the constitution and endangerment to democracy.
www.chosun.com/english/nati...

YouTube video by The University of Western Australia 9 Life Lessons - Tim Minchin UWA Address

Over a decade old, but still good. youtu.be/yoEezZD71sc?...

bsky.app/profile/thet...

Racked by Pain and Enraptured by a Right-Wing Miracle Cure (Published 2024)

Article from last year, but I guess it’s relevant again. www.nytimes.com/2024/07/28/u...

In one of those cases, there were topics that would have been discussed, but the group felt like it would be futile because the civilian principal would be too lost to act upon the information. Instead, they opted to run the issue up the chain in hopes that the CSA or a CCDR could raise it for them.

I witnessed versions of this (GOs briefing a young acting SecArmy; GOs/SESs briefing young staffers). The conversations felt like a visit to a high school because the civilians lacked the experience for productive discussion. It implied civilians did not or could not take weighty issues seriously.

I think most of us wouldn’t keep the card if it charged a fee. I’ve never used half the perks because I have no need for them. So it’s not nearly worth the annual fee.
Now the Blue Cash Preferred - 6% back for groceries and 3% back for gas. That’s a sweet deal.