When it comes to lessons learned, everyone seems to focus on the battlefield tactics and the application of current technology. While that is very interesting, there are some other points we can already pull from this war… First, nuclear weapons are the holy grail of strategic planning. I read an article the other day by […]

Editor’s Note: Arrias maintains the front on the Chesapeake. We were brushed by the same swath of cold wet air last night. It brought the first barely-measurable snow of the season to the Commonwealth. We had other communications from a square state out west with wind blowing a dozen degrees below zero (F) behind a […]

The World Economic Forum has just concluded. During it we had the repeated pronouncements from the Leading Luminaries of our day that doom is upon us unless we commit, to quote our climate czar, “Money, money, money, money, money.” Should we? To answer that, it is instructive to recall that in the late 1970s the […]

If you’ve ever been on a US Navy ship, several times per day you’ll here a call over the 1MC (1 Main Comm – a “public address” system that goes to every compartment in the ship): “Sweepers, Sweepers, Man your brooms, give the ship a clean sweep down fore and aft. Sweep down all decks, […]

Hannibal, the great Carthaginian general, is well remembered for his virtually mystical performance on the battlefield. For 14 years he waged war against Rome and never lost an engagement – until the last one, the battle of Zama. And even then, his defeat was a direct result of the earlier betrayal by his ally of […]

The year began like any other, Full of hope, wonder, fear and surprises, Troubles and wars and rumors of war, And now another year arises. Last year was just the same in this, A bright future beckoned to all, What was possible or what would be, Just who would make that call? A New York […]

Sanctuary A Siberian beast stalks the high plains, From the mountains the frost giants descend, Scouring the land before them, In their storm-blast mighty trees will bend. Alone on the plain a dacha stands, Proof against the cruelest gale, The Master and the Mistress of this house, Sip their cognac, they will prevail. A cheery […]

Author’s Note: My Muse in somber mood this morning… Wading through a host of reports on Ukraine, the fighting around Bakhmut seems to be growing in intensity, and the trench warfare is getting nastier and nastier as the weather gets colder, and yet there is a story in one of the big foreign policy journals that that […]

Author’s Note: My Muse was active… A dream I did not want to wake up from… someplace hot on a cold winter morning… -Arrias Spice Souq I was buying shelled pistachios, Some cloves from Zanzibar, And a pound of dried pear, A jar of Tumeric, Nutmeg from Pemang, When I saw her standing there. A […]

Author’s Note: My Muse showed up again this morning… chilly for mid November… The puppies had me up and out early, but “too cold” to hear any of the birds as my field guide so informed me… – Arrias A thick hoar frost, A cold, hard ground, A thin, bright crescent moon, Frozen grass crunches […]