Author: Vic Socotra

Arrias: Club Gaza

Author’s Note: I know this is impossible, but it really needs to be said… While the Israelis pursue their plan to sweep through Gaza, the question that bugs me is this: what is the long term solution to the Gaza Strip? As I see it, there are four major paths forward for Gaza – in […]

Arrias: Rest in Peace, Mr. Smith

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Just needed to say this… – ARRIAS A good man passed away the other day… I’ll call him Mr. Smith. He deserves, as much as is possible, given his career, a note on his passing. You don’t know him, and in all likelihood you never will. He worked for one of those organizations […]

Any Doubts?

Despite the fact that it is clearly not Saturday, there was the usual modicum of disbelief in the assertion that it is the Day of Prayer and rest. Correspondent Trey Yingst apparently got some sleep after working the first 73 hours of the conflict and other media figures were flown into the region to explain […]

A Mountain of Trouble

We confess we don’t get what is going on at the moment. The War thing currently going on in Israel eludes some of our understanding. The IDF- the National Defense Forces- has a well-deserved reputation for excellence. The mystery of how it was taken by surprise a week ago is still unraveling, although some of […]

The Speed of War

It wasn’t the first time anyone noticed. We had a less formal meeting while attempting to chart a reasonable course through currently troubled waters. Context of conflict was confused. The sudden incursion by Hamas into southern Israel was unexpected, which naturally led to speculation that there was more to the story. That would be a […]

Weather Report: War in the Gaza Strip

The Writer’s Section is taking a certain distance on this war. It is the third one that has had a name in our personal experience. There were a few more that had “operational” names, and places with names. “GONZO Station” was one of those places. We spent 110 days there one time, waiting for something […]

Pray For Peace

We did not see some of the worst of yesterday until today. The depth of the carried-over horror featured stories about infant casualties- casualties intentionally inflicted on children. This is the fifth day of incalculable cruelty. We talked about the young woman’s face yesterday. Her eyes were distant as she was dragged by her hair […]

The First Intifadah

This morning brings us a new crop of horror from a War in progress. It is already sliding past mid-afternoon in the Eastern Mediterranean. More rockets were reported in the overnight hours there to bolster the horrific tempo of the day. As a group, we had no vivid memories of Gaza City from our only […]

Portrait of a Woman

There was some conversation on The Patio before the Production Meeting to line up what to inflict on you gentle readers over the course of this troubled week. We could do the numbers from the latest war. On this Monday, they are reporting an even “800” casualties in the fighting on the Gaza Strip. The […]

Money, Motivation and Messaging

The money part of this is in play. For the first time since 1910 we have an “interim Speaker” in the U.S. House of Representatives. Since the House is supposed to be the cash register for government, there was muttering about how the new war is going to be affected by the vacancy in our […]