"There is a great deal of ruin in a nation"

I drive back and forth to Springfield, MA to teach at Springfield College a couple times a week and have been catching up on podcasts. This one was good. I'm gonna have to buy @Jacob__Siegel's Information State!

It is my belief that a large voluntary state guard in Connecticut will give more people a sense of what the military does and therefore what several thousand marines and paratroopers could accomplish, as we continue to slowly assemble the concept of an endstate in Iran

Too busy being grateful that we aren't expanding the war in Iran (at least not today) to care that I was wrong about this

I predict that we will not stop tomorrow as this administration seems intent on, having pulled down America's pants and exposed our flabby backside to the world, walking ass-first into a bigger war

In fact the strongest possible move here would be to say "we accomplished what we set out to" without further explanation. Given that we can't undo the past month, stopping tomorrow is the best course of action

It must terrify the people pushing hard for the U.S. to "finish the job" (what job? What is the endstate?) that in a world of the strong and the weak, that the U.S. as one of the strong could, in fact, walk away from this war tomorrow and not blink

As the U.S. is one of a handful of superpowers in a might-makes-right world — guess what! Our credibility is our ability to do damage. So long as we field nukes and aircraft carrier groups, we have credibility.

It wasn't on the line for the Budapest Memorandum or for the Kurds in Iraq or Syria or for the Iraqis or the Afghans or for the Taiwanese or for NATO but this time... this time it's on the line

Was on Power and Politics with @News12CT this week talking about — what else? — my independent campaign for governor in order to create a large voluntary state guard.

Did YOU want to watch CCTV's AI Martial Arts cartoon about the Straits of Hormuz crisis? Complete with fighting Persian Cats? Well I subtitled it for you so you can enjoy it in all its trope-laden glory! Remember kids, the mountains will stay standing while the green water flows,

Fairhanded article about my gubernatorial bid from indy media outlet The New Haven Independent

In January's Citizens to Soldiers I talked with Major Edward Farrer of the British military about two wargames he created modeling mobilization of military force. Not a lot of people in that space gamifying what that process looks like. It's interesting.

Joined @DrozdaAndriy on his t.v. program last week to talk about Iran, Ukraine, and my campaign for governor of Connecticut. Think I answered most of his questions correctly, which tells me I have a decent handle on how things are unfolding

We know what's next. Not an ignominious withdrawal, a humiliating defeat. We'll go further in. Double or triple down. I'm nowhere near the Pentagon. I hope folks there are preparing for that possibility. Cause that's a lot of boots, ammo, and water.

So let's acknowledge a possible outcome to landing a few thousand American Marines in Iran: Iran uses this opportunity to kill a bunch of them, and down air assets, sink a ship or two. It's unlikely but possible that Iran could pull something off like that. What's next?

In a conflict that leadership can't even bring itself to call a war, without a clear endstate, it's absurd we're considering putting American troops on the ground. But it's worse — we're talking about a few thousand troops, within range of conventional systems the enemy fields

Even with that book in mind, I (and other Company XOs) were surprised at how much water and ammunition is required to support an airborne company (~120-130 troops) in combat, and how difficult that can be. Troops always burn through more than you expect, always

The book details the North Vietnamese siege of Dien Bien Phu. It's a hard read if you like the French (I do) and don't want the North Vietnamese to win (I didn't). It's a story of arrogance, bad planning, and assumptions about what sort of operations a military can sustain

Before my first deployment to Afghanistan, with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, I was encouraged by a friend to read "Hell in a Very Small Place" by Bernard Fall. We were heading to a valley that was difficult to resupply by land. I'm glad I read it.