A few Veterans Day Comments.

Somewhere in Korea.

I wasn't going to post on Veterans Day at all, in part because the overblown hero worship that's been attached to it for some time is really starting to bug me. But then, I've been owly recently anyhow.  

But, as predictable (every year the number of posts on this site goes up, this year no exception, which is why I’m considering not posting at all in December) I changed my mind.  A few random comments.

Were you in the Army?

My new associate asked me this the other day, as I have the photograph of my basic training platoon up on my office wall.

Funny, I'm so used to it being there, I never notice it.

Military service, regular and reserve, was routine when I was young. Not everyone had it by any means, but lots of people do.

And this was even more so for my parents.  My father was in the Air Force, his brother in the Army.  My other uncles in the World War Two Navy and Canadian Army, and post-war Navy.  The guys my father ate lunch with every day had all been in the service.

Not so much anymore.

November 7, 1983: Able Archer 83, a Close Call

An item from Uncle Mike's fine blog.

I was in the National Guard at the time. Little did we realize how close we'd come to serving in a short, sharp, and probably nuclear war.

As odd as it may sound, I actually had predicted a war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact at about this time, a predication that didn't come true, but my reasoning was sound.

Reagan became President in 1981 and as soon as his first military budgets started to take effect, things really were noticeable in the Guard.  New equipment, better field training, etc.  The Warsaw Pact took note of that and started building up to counter it.

Able Archer, like Team Spirit, and Reforger were all part of the training regime of the time.  It was no secret that the Warsaw Pact was trying to respond to it all.  In the end, that spending brought them down. They couldn't afford it.

A lesson there to a country that's spending like crazy right now and just got economically downgraded.

Anyhow, my prediction nearly came true with Able Archer, but not for the reason I thought this would happen. I thought it would happen as the Warsaw Pact, or rather the USSR, would reason that it only had so much time while it had military superiority in which to act.

This was a view, I'd note, that was reinforced by playing the military hex and counter war games based on a NATO/Warsaw Pact war.  It was pretty clear that it was really hard for NATO to win a conventional one.

Or so it seemed.

We vastly overrated the Red Army and Soviet military equipment, as the war in Ukraine has demonstrated.

Funny, at the same time I recall being assigned A Republic of Grass in college which suggested we surrender to the Soviets before a war broke out.

A note on Reagan

When Reagan was President, I wasn't sure what to make of him.  As a Guardsman, we were all grateful for the new equipment and attitude.  Carter's military had been a sad sort of thing, as exemplified, perhaps, by the failed attempt to mount a raid to free the Iranian embassy hostages.

But it seemed like we were messing around in Central America an awful lot, which I wasn't sure what to make of. In retrospect, it's clear that the Cold War was being played out there in proxy.

When Reagan was president, I was a university student.  It seems to be forgotten now, but most university students weren't big Reagan fans.  As noted, I wasn't an opponent, but I wasn't a fan.  My father was convinced that Reagan had Alzheimer's which, in fact, he did.

On Reagan and Carter, it's interesting to note that Carter was an Annapolis graduate. Reagan had more of a military career than his opponents claimed, having been a pre-war cavalry reserve officer, but his wartime role was in the branch of the military that made films. That was honorable enough, but Reagan introduced the snappy salute to servicemen which stuck after that, and which I don't like.  Presidents saluting servicemen seems really odd, particularly when we get Presidents who've never been in the military.

Anyhow, most of my conservative friends love and admire Reagan.  I still am not so sure about him.  I can see where he made course corrections at the time which were vital.  It was under Reagan, really, that the country got back on its feet after the Vietnam War.  And Reagan introduced the brief period of Buckleyite conservatism, which I like, to the government.

He also, however, started the populist smudge which is now a roaring flame by using the Southern Strategy to win, and that's having dire effects.  And frankly, I'm not impressed with the starving of the government economically that came in at that time.

On this Veterans Day, don't thank those who served, but ponder those who didn't.

This sounds harsh, but I'm not kidding.

Most veterans don't really want to be thanked for serving.  Truth be known, a lot of us served for reasons that weren't all that noble or were mixed.  Paying for university was in my mind, for example.

Having said that, in my adult years I've known a few people who avoided serving in the military when there was a time of need. Some of them have real reason of conscience and can and do defend it, on the rare occasions it comes up.

In contrast, we have people who sort of hero worship the military, or who are public figures thanking it, about whom there are real questions.

Donald Trump sent out his thanks today, but he avoided the Vietnam draft on a medical profile.  That's never been adequately answered, and in private comments he disdains those who served in the military, which fits right in with his epic level of being self impressed.  Biden had draft deferments too, I'd note.

There are real reasons for deferments, but what gets me here is the co-opting of valor, or the bestowing of it on people who don't deserve it.  People don't claim that Biden is some sort of hero. But you can find completely absurd illustrations of Trump as a military figure.  I don't really see Trump voluntarily serving in any war at any time, and had he lived during the Revolution, I sure don't see him as some sort of Continental Army officer.

So, while it's rude, for at least some thanking veterans "for their service", an appropriate response is "why didn't you serve?".

The real purpose of the day

The real purpose of this day is to remember the dead and badly wounded.  That's about it.

Lots of people serve during time of peace in one way or another. We don't deserve your thanks.  Yes, I'm sure that I'm personally responsible for keeping the Red Horde at bay, but I didn't get hurt serving.  Truth be known, I benefitted from it personally in all sorts of ways, a lot of which are deeply personal.  The service formed a lot of my psychology on certain things in a permanent way, all of which are ways in which I'm glad that it did. 

A lot goes into a person's personality, some of it more significant than others, and I do have more significant ones. The service was, however, a significant one.  Hindsight being 20/20, I wish I had not gotten out of the Guard when I did, also for a selection of personal reasons.

So I owe the service thanks. The country doesn't really owe me any. But people whose lives were permanently altered or last? Well, that's a different matter.

Friday, September 1, 1972. Bobby Fischer becomes the international chess champion.

Knights Templar playing the ancient game of chess.

American Bobby Fischer became the International chess champion in Reykjavík, Iceland, following the withdrawal from match 21 by Soviet player Boris Spassky.

I can dimly recall this, as it was really followed at the time, even though I was only nine years old.  Then, as now, it was hard for me to really grasp the interest in this event.  I like the game, but as an international sporting event, if that's what we'd call it, it's a little hard to grasp. 

The Cold War must principally explain it.

Fischer's prize was $154,677.50, a substantial haul nor or then.

Fischer was an odd character and hard to like.  He was anti-Semitic and became a Holocaust denier, even though his mother was Jewish.  After the 1972 victory, he didn't play a competitive game in public for another 20 years, although he did play against MIT's Greenblatt computer in 1977, beating it three times.  In the early 1990s he replayed Spassky in Yugoslavia, where he won again but where he also didn't seem to have evolved in the game.  Spassky remained friends with Fischer throughout his life and introduced him to a known serious love interest of Fischer's, with that latter relationship not lasting, not too surprisingly.

The Yugoslavia match violated economic sanctions in place and made Fischer a fugitive from justice from the United States.  He lived in various places before going back to Reykjavík, where he died in 2005 at age 64.  A member of the Worldwide Church of God for much of his life, just prior to his death he became intensely interested in Catholicism and requested a Catholic funeral. 

The United States dropped its claims on the Swan Islands in favor of Honduras.

Tuesday, June 27, 1972. Atari incorporated in California.

 

A sign of things to come.

Wars and Rumors of War, 2022. The Russo Ukrainian War Edition, Part Three

 

March 14, 2022

Russo-Ukrainian War

Talks will resume today between Russia and Ukraine. So far they have failed to produce results.

The weekend shows all featured concerns that Russia will deploy chemical weapons.  

Russia struck a training base which is approximately ten miles from the Polish border with missiles.

Russia is seeking economic relief and military drones from China.  The request for drones is particularly telling as it's the attempt to import weapons from a foreign source, something Russia has not done since World War Two, demonstrating a material deficiency.

March 15, 2022

Russo Ukrainian War

March 15, 2022

By Viewsridge - Own work, derivate of Russo-Ukraine Conflict (2014-present).svg by Rr016Missile attacks source: BNO NewsTerritorial control source: ISW & Template:Russo-Ukrainian War detailed map, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=115506141

The lines remain largely the same as yesterday, with a slight Russian advance in the north.  The Russians have continued to assault cities through various forms of artillery and rocketry.

This has resulted in large-scale civilian loss of life, including the heavily pregnant woman whose photograph was widely distributed.  The woman, photographed on a stretcher, was severely injured and both she and her baby died as a result of the Russian strike on a pregnancy hospital in Mariupol.  

An article by a participant reveals that the Marine Corps ran a hex and counter game of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, with largely similar results up to the present time.  The author noted that a premise of the game was that the Russians committed less than they could, failing to understand how stout Ukrainian resistance would be.

That assumption has been widespread, but the problem with it is that it ignores the reality of Russian effectiveness on the ground. The Russians military continues to have apologists, but at this point it's pretty difficult to conclude that the Russians simply weren't prepared for what they've encountered and, moreover, their military is experiencing its traditional incompetence.  Yesterday, the news broke that the Russians are seeking drones and field rations from the Chinese, indicating an inability to readily supply good drones of their own and moreover a shortage of field rations.  While I've even seen that explained away, that's a clear indication that this war has gotten over their heads and abilities.  That doesn't mean they'll lose, but it does mean that they're being outfought and attrition of material items is catching up with them on at least a basic level on one thing, food.

An examination of the chemical weapons story being tossed about by the Russians reveals that it originated on American far right websites and was adopted by the Russians.  That means that those circulating it now, such as Candace Owens, have picked up on a far-fetched American conspiracy theory story adopted by the Russians are now basically unwitting Russian tools.

A bill has been introduced in the U.S. Congress to issue letters of marque and reprisal.

117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6869

  To authorize the President of the United States to issue letters of 
 marque and reprisal for the purpose of seizing the assets of certain 
               Russian citizens, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 28, 2022

 Mr. Gooden of Texas introduced the following bill; which was referred 
                  to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To authorize the President of the United States to issue letters of 
 marque and reprisal for the purpose of seizing the assets of certain 
               Russian citizens, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. ISSUANCE OF LETTERS OF MARQUE AND REPRISAL FOR PURPOSE OF 
              SEIZING ASSETS OF CERTAIN RUSSIAN CITIZENS.

    (a) Authority of President.--The President of the United States is 
authorized and requested to commission, under officially issued letters 
of marque and reprisal, so many of privately armed and equipped persons 
and entities as, in the judgment of the President, the service may 
require, with suitable instructions to the leaders thereof, to employ 
all means reasonably necessary to seize outside the geographic 
boundaries of the United States and its territories any yacht, plane, 
or other asset of any Russian citizen who is on the List of Specially 
Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons maintained by the Office of 
Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury.
    (b) Security Bonds.--No letter of marque and reprisal shall be 
issued by the President without requiring the posting of a security 
bond in such amount as the President shall determine is sufficient to 
ensure that the letter be executed according to the terms and 
conditions thereof.

The bill will not pass, but it's interesting how this is the second time this suggestion has come up in the last twenty years, showing a slight renewed interest in one of the war powers that had seemingly fallen away completely.

Yesterday, an employee of a Russian television show popped into the background of a news broadcast with a sign protesting the war.

March 16, 2022

Ukraine has launched counteroffensives in the north seeking to relieve its besieged cities, including Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy addressed the U.S. Congress.

March 18, 2022

Among the casualties of war is civilian Oksana Shivits, a famed Ukrainian actress, who was killed by a Russian missile strike.

Yet another Russian general, together with his staff, was killed in action.

An interesting prediction from a well known commentator:

Anders Åslund

@anders_aslund

The incredible is about to happen: Ukraine appears to be about to defeat Russia in Ukraine. Russia allocated 100 out of its ca 170 battalion tactical groups to its assault on Ukraine. According to the Ukrainians, about 50 btgs are now out of action.

March 19, 2022

March 19, 2022

By Viewsridge - Own work, derivate of Russo-Ukraine Conflict (2014-present).svg by Rr016Missile attacks source: BNO NewsTerritorial control source: ISW & Template:Russo-Ukrainian War detailed map, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=115506141

Russian forces have been gaining ground in the south and in the north once again.  This has been little reported on, but whatever has been holding them up may have, at least to some degree, been overcome to some extent.  Since the last map was posted, a significant amount of Ukrainian territory was taken in the south and southeast.

The Russians have been hitting Lviv with rockets regularly.

Russian cosmonauts, in a bold act of protest, arrived at the International Space Station yesterday wearing suits that were in Ukraine's national colors.

The United States has cautioned China to avoid aiding the Russians in the war.

March 20, 2022

March 20, 2022

By Viewsridge - Own work, derivate of Russo-Ukraine Conflict (2014-present).svg by Rr016Missile attacks source: BNO NewsTerritorial control source: ISW & Template:Russo-Ukrainian War detailed map, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=115506141

Russian forces continue to gain ground in the south.

Fighting continues on in Mariupol with the Russians continuing to hit urban structures resulting in civilian loss of life.

The Russians have deployed hypersonic missiles in their long range bombardment efforts, the first use of the same in war.

The Russians appear to be starting to recruit Syrians to serve in their forces in the war.\

March 20, cont:

On the weekend shows, Mitch McConnell made a pitch for aiding Ukraine and noted that we should take the view that the Ukrainians may win, and we should help them do so.

Russia has been deporting residents of Mariupol to camps.

The Institute for the Study of War reported that it regards Russia as having lost the first stage of the war and that it is now basically digging in for a long war.  It reports:

Ukrainian forces have defeated the initial Russian campaign of this war. That campaign aimed to conduct airborne and mechanized operations to seize Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and other major Ukrainian cities to force a change of government in Ukraine. That campaign has culminated. Russian forces continue to make limited advances in some parts of the theater but are very unlikely to be able to seize their objectives in this way. The doctrinally sound Russian response to this situation would be to end this campaign, accept a possibly lengthy operational pause, develop the plan for a new campaign, build up resources for that new campaign, and launch it when the resources and other conditions are ready. The Russian military has not yet adopted this approach. It is instead continuing to feed small collections of reinforcements into an ongoing effort to keep the current campaign alive. We assess that that effort will fail.

It further reports:

The Ukrainian General Staff reported for the first time that the Kremlin is preparing its population for a “long war” in Ukraine and implementing increasingly draconian mobilization measures. The General Staff reported the Russian military commissariats of the Kuban, Primorsky Krai, Yaroslavl Oblast, and Ural Federal Districts are conducting covert mobilization measures but are facing widespread resistance.

In an odd development, in some parts of the US efforts to collect arms for Ukraine have commenced, although how much help donated arms could be, let lone whether they could get there, is a pretty problematic question.

NATO representatives and US Defense Department representatives hinted that the use of biological or chemical weapons by the Russians may cross a line which would result in direct NATO involvement in the war.

March 21, 2022

Ukraine rejected Russian calls for the surrender of Mariupol.  Western analysts have opined the Russians may be too exhausted to take the city in a house to house battle.

There are growing fears that Russia, should it win in Ukraine, may take on the Baltic States, members of NATO, next, or Moldova, which is not.

March 22, 2022

The Ukrainians pushed the Russians out of a Kyiv suburb.

Over the last few days, the Ukrainians have been mounting some offensive actions.

March 23, 2022

From the Wall Street Journal:

NATO says that up to 40,000 Russian troops have been killed, wounded, taken prisoner or are missing in Ukraine, said a senior military official from the alliance.

40,000.

NATO estimates that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the invasion began on Feb. 24. Using statistical averages from past conflicts that for every casualty roughly three soldiers are wounded, NATO analysts reach their total figure.

Russia began its invasion with roughly 190,000 troops. It has since brought in additional troops from Chechnya, Syria and other locations.

This would mean that the Russian Army has sustained as many combat deaths in Ukraine as the Soviet Army did during its entire campaign in Afghanistan.

March 24, 2022

Russo-Ukrainian War

High ranking Russian official Anatoly Chubais resigned his post and left the country due to the war in Ukraine.

Russian journalist Oksana Baulina was killed while filming in Kyiv.

Renault, which had resumed production in Russia, has stopped again.

Finland has detained 21 yachts with ties to Russians.

North Korea

North Korea fired a missile that may be an ICBM into the sea.

March 25, 2022

Russo Ukrainian War

Half of Ukraine's children have been displaced due to the war.

The Ukrainians destroyed the large Russian landing ship Orsk and damaged two other Russian naval vessels in the occupied port of Berdyansk.

Ukrainians have been regaining some ground near Kyiv.

There are reports that yet another Russian general, Yakov Rezantsev, has been killed in Ukraine.  He reportedly was close to Putin and had predicted the war in Ukraine would be short.

Col. Yury Medvedev, a Russian commander, was injured when a Russian tank crewman intentionally ran over him with a tank.

There are reports that hackers and railway workers in Belorussian have been disrupting the railway system there in support of Ukraine.  Pro Ukrainian protests have broken out in the country.

March 26, 2022

Russia declared yesterday that its goal in the war had been to take all the Donbas region and that the larger offensive was just a diversion, a claim that's fairly obviously baloney.  More likely, this signals an effort to recast the war in that light, perhaps to the Russians themselves, in an effort to declare victory and potentially wind the operation down in light of the difficulties it has been facing.

The announcement is quite significant, however, as it signals the war has likdly entered a new phase with Russian forces going, at least temporarily, into a defensive posture.

Russian forces have ceased offensive actions near Kyvi and gone on the defensive.  Ukrainian forces have been on the offensive there in recent days.

The BBC reports that the Russians have lost a total of six generals in the war in Ukraine.  In contrast, the United States lost 12 generals during the long Vietnam War, and one in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon reports that Russian cruise missiles have a failure rate of 20% to 60%.

Last Prior Thread:

Wars and Rumors of War, 2022. The Russo Ukrainian War Edition, Part Two.

Other related threads:

Some observations on the war in Ukraine

Ash Wednesday 2022. A day of fasting and prayer for Peace.

MAKE BORSCHT, NOT WAR. - The Borealist

Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Part IX. The Russo Ukranian War edition.

A Daily Reading

The Russo Ukrainian War. Russian Generals

Wednesday, January 21, 1942. Banning pinball

On  this day in 1942 a court in New York ruled that pinball machines were games of chance, not skill, and therefore banned them.

There had been somewhat of a public campaign against the games in New York for some time.  Associated, to a certain degree, with youthful idleness and vice, there was evidence that gaming in New York was controlled by the Mafia, which brought some urgency to the effort by authorities.

I've never really liked pinball machines myself, so its a bit of a mystery to me why they were ever popular, but they were hugely popular at one time, enjoying a big swing of interest in the 1970s, just before video games arrived and basically wiped them out.

Rommel, pushed across North Africa, counterattacks:

Today in World War II History—January 21, 1942

The counterattack, which would reverse much of the gains of Operation Crusader, was a surprise to the British forces and emblematic of the seesaw nature of the fighting in North Africa.

Today In Wyoming's History: Updates for May, 2017: Caps and Clothing of 1930s Working Men.

This month's update thread on our companion history blog:

Today In Wyoming's History: Updates for May, 2017:

May 1:  Wyoming State hiring freeze added for 2017.

Totally unrelated to the updates, what a great photo of engineer caps in use by railroad men in the late 30s or early 40s.  The men in foreground are reading newspapers (a couple of them must be travelers) and the ones in the background are playing dominoes (they are at work, but obviously waiting for something).

Indeed, what a great photo of work men's attire in general.  The man standing on the right has an engineer's cap, boots, "carpenter's" pants, and a leather jacket.  All when working men generally dressed to fit their roles (which they still often do), leather was common, not a luxury item, and before the dominance of the baseball cap.

I missed this one when doing what was formerly our most popular thread here,  Caps, Hats, Fashion and Perceptions of Decency and being Dressed. Too bad, it's a great one.  Lots going on, and it says a lot about all kinds of things.

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Old West Gamblers and Beer

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Old West Gamblers and Beer: Faro and Warm Beer I’m not sure how many times, hundreds if not thousands, I have read or watched on TV or the movies, a poker game i...