Voyage to Bikini The Americans were nervous for the first few weeks. They had been at war, and now they were in the harbor of their enemy. They manned their guns at an advanced state of alert, though the most threatening thing they saw was Japanese civilians peering at them with curiosity, and bathing nude […]

It is sometimes said that the Department of War never lost one, and the Department of Defense never won a conflict. There is some room to quibble, since at the time we considered the first Gulf War to be a victory, since it liberated Kuwait from Saddam. But in the larger strategic context, the unpleasantness […]

Men have always had their weapons. It is in the DNA of the species. But periodically ones arrive that are remarkable for their force or effect. The sling, for example, which propels a rock at greater speed than the arm alone. David had one, and Goliath could not adapt quick enough. Other peoples had their […]

I am hooked on the television thriller �24� again. They aired another couple episodes of the new season last night. I went to bed with the image of a suit-case sized nuclear device being detonated in Los Angeles, someplace. It is just a small one, and I remember the technology from other times. The rest […]

I am perched on the balcony, looking quizzically at the sky. The jet stream is toying with Washington, crossing up and across from the Gulf. Meanwhile, there is something fierce and awful happening out west, arctic sub-zero in Colorado and freezing rain from Texas to Illinois, but there is nothing here but uncertain drizzle. Could […]

The Accidental Wilsonian I am a sucker for museums. I like ’em big, like the British Museum, or the Air and Space Museum. I like ’em found by the roadside, and exult in the tacky attractions that dot the old pre–interstate routes west across America. Best of all, I like the small and intimate museums […]

Resurrection I was deep in the Shenandoah Valley on a cold winter morning. I’d left Arlington in the dark, using a flashlight to see if there was coolant in the reservoir on the truck. As the sun came up behind me, the air assumed a crystalline clarity. Still and heavy, it would have been a […]

Back in Battery There is an old Naval phrase that has come to be part of my daily syntax. “Back in Battery” originally was an artillery term that described a gun that had completed its recoil cycle and was ready for firing again. Common usage now uses the phrase to mean ‘ready to go,’ or […]

The salmon was excellent, I must say, and the host was generous in filling my wineglass with an exuberant chardonnay. It led to one of those delightfully garrulous dinners of whimsy and history. I will not reveal the participants, since plausible deniability is one of the pleasant fictions that maintain this string of cartoon balloons […]

Late Night  My son got tickets to Late Night with David Letterman, and after a slightly odd family luncheon, we struck out to attend the Wednesday show with the twelve leading NASCAR Drivers, Viggo Mortenson, a Tatooed Lady and the rock band Daughtery.   I think the lead singer in the latter had been on […]