David Alman

Naktong Bulge wargame .

The wargame for tonight

*never* a good day lol

Best single volume rigorous histories of:
1) American Civil War
2) Spanish Civil War

Something like Anderson’s “Crucible of War” for those conflicts?

“Here is why we should be the next SECDEF / DASD in the next administration”

The key word here is “intended” …. with all the definition of the word implies!

Saw it on a desk in a vault, almost threw up everywhere

Silicon Valley Enlists in the Business of War

Silicon Valley brings the business of grift to national defense.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/t...

This was a great program that helped Americans in need, helped the environment, and helped the country more broadly.

Of course put on the chopping block while we give handouts to billionaires.

Display of Littoral Commander's Strait of Malacca map .

We shall see who is King of the Straits (the PLA side of my brain or the US side of my brain)

NYC Mass Shooting Was Nearly Impossible to Prevent, Experts Say

Holy shit, they did it. They wrote the headline.

The other thing is even if you weren’t a full fledged Nazi, if you tolerated your fellow soldiers being Nazis then you’re complicit.

It’s “Ordinary Men”

I don’t have anything top of mind, but I’m sure @sodrock.bsky.social does.

The things that comes to mind are Hans Von Luck’s memoir and then the official histories (green books).

“If you want a strategy optimized to ensure you get turbo f-ed by the USAAC / RAF and are ineffective against the invasion force then do we have a strategy for you!”

Met an Air Force officer - a totally functioning member of society who contributes great things to her nation - who grew up and went to college with the support of section 8, SNAP (+ equivalents), and ROTC.

That’s what America and the social safety net is all about.

Just read schelling

Woke up realizing this was me in a bar the other night 💀

No days off for pme

“This is the first time ever in history a front line has ever become static based on an inability to assault without prohibitive casualties”
www.wsj.com/world/europe...

Drones have been decisive in the Ukraine conflict. Nobody needs infantry or tanks anymore because quadcopters topple nations.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/13/b...

Is that a “Shinseki would have spoken up” leadership failure? Or even the reports from their staff didn’t anticipate it?

^ I don’t know, to be clear, although my question framing certainly implies my hypothesis

Understand, but are those logistical / casualty problems unsurprising given the scale of operations they were conducting?

Put another way, how many of those issues would have been anticipated by even moderately sound analysis? Or was it truly “surprising”?

The other thing that distorts the casualty figures a ton are early German successes and then later Russian successes. Periodizing a bit can get some different answers, I suspect.

Was it really that high? Like abnormally so?

My mental model, which could be totally wrong, was that the rate of losses was relatively “normal” but the scale of fighting was so large.

Especially compared to casualties inflicted?

“It will take one billion dollars in AI or one ditch, the choice is yours”

Also look at Israel (real airpower) vs Iran (owa drone)….

The real disrespect was the panera egg and sausage instead of the CFA spicy chicken biscuit

Own goals

Everyday brings new horrors.

I mean even under the Biden admin they denied tanks and other weapons.

UKR asked for tanks and we had the CJCS saying, "they don't want those tanks because XYZ," even when they are asking for them.

We've basically always been a fickle trickle. We do not clearly tie any Russian behavior to the weapons we send, nor do we give Ukraine the weapons it wants. And, as we've seen recently, we sometimes stop altogether.

Or how to be a real douche, but I guess de facto king in the Louis XVI sense…..

And why use four words (“Provocative ideas about race”) when one will do. Yarvin is a racist.