Opinion Forum

Has China Been Fishing in Troubled Waters?

May 18th, 2012

By Dan Miller She may have critters on her plate that will be hard to eat with or without chopsticks. On May 8th, four Chinese boats from the port of Dalian were fishing about fifty miles from the Chinese coast when they were “hijacked” by North Koreans. One vessel was released but the remaining three, [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: China, fishing boats, North Korea, provocation, ransom, South Korea
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (0) | Home

Healing from War 2012

May 17th, 2012

By Jan Barry About 100 people turned out for a Saturday night event in April that offered no booze, dancing, live music or political speeches. The attraction was a display of art created from military uniforms and war memories. The event—called Healing from War Through the Arts, at the Puffin Cultural Forum in Teaneck, NJ—featured [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Combat Paper, exhibition, poetry, PTSD, veterans, war, Warrior Writer
Categories: Arts, Life, Military | Comments (0) | Home

The Marine Hymn needs to be rewritten, badly. I have tried.

May 14th, 2012

By Dan Miller It’s beastly and must never again be sung until changed. Then, we can finally be as proud of our country as we are of President and Mrs. Obama. Here are verses from the disgustingly warlike Marine Hymn: From the Halls of Montezuma To the Shores of Tripoli, We fight our country’s battles [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: alpha, beta, gay, Hymn, Marines, men, President, satire, USMC, wusses
Categories: Media, Military, Politics | Comments (3) | Home

Trust but Verify Applies Not Only to Foreign Governments

May 6th, 2012

By Dan Miller Governance of a free people requires their continuously earned trust. Verification is needed to preserve that trust when it is justified and to destroy that trust when it is no longer justified. That is not solely the function of the principal media. Governance with decreasing mutual trust requires the use of ever [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: Chen, China, conspiracy, culture, election, government, PSYOP, Zimmerman
Categories: Media, Military, Politics | Comments (3) | Home

Vet Arts Profiled on PBS

May 2nd, 2012

By Jan Barry PBS Newshour ran an unusual program the other night, providing an insightful look at the Combat Paper Project that I’ve been working with for some time. “Finally tonight, transforming the wardrobe of war into art,” PBS Newshour anchor Gwen Ifill said in introducing this report aired on April 30. “In 2007, a [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Afghanistan, combat art, Combat Paper, Iraq, PBS, veterans, vets
Categories: Arts, Military, News | Comments (2) | Home

Government and the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal

April 26th, 2012

By Dan Miller Douglas Adams’ Ravenous Bugblatter Beast is a beacon lighting the way for government. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy clarifies much that would otherwise remain puzzling to sentient beings. With the explanations it provides, even carbon-based, bipedal ape-descended life forms on Earth — who are “so amazingly primitive that they still think [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: Afghanistan, apology, bow, Hitchhiker's Guide, Obama, ROE, satire
Categories: Arts, Military, Politics | Comments (0) | Home

More North Korean Threats – Next Verse Same as the First

April 24th, 2012

By Dan Miller Why? Is North Korea serious or is she polishing her tarnished begging bowl yet again? The perception that North Korea is “almost ready” to conduct another nuclear test “soon” has been voiced since before the abortive missile test on Friday the Thirteenth of April at 7:39 AM Korean time. It is now [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: bomb, China, DPRK, Kim Jong-un, missile, North Korea, nuclear, test
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (0) | Home

Will North Korea Attempt a Nuclear Test?

April 14th, 2012

By Dan Miller It seems rather likely, soon, although not for the reasons commonly suggested. Motivations for a nuclear test It has been widely speculated that a North Korean nuclear test will follow the embarrassing spectacle of its expensive ($850 million) Friday the 13th long range missile debacle. According to this article from Bloomberg, Kim [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: bomb, DPRK, failure, missile, North Korea, nuclear, rocket, starvation, test
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (3) | Home

North Korea, Missile Launch, and a Big Bad Bomb

April 12th, 2012

By Dan Miller Going Once! Going Twice! Going Thrice! Gone! But don’t worry. President Obama is on the ball. The Missile launch After previous failures, it had been anticipated that North Korea would attempt, between April 12th and 16th, to launch a long range missile that it claimed would lift only a harmless small observation satellite [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: China, DPRK, missile, North Korea, nuclear, payload, rocket, South Korea
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (0) | Home

North Korea, Missile and Nuclear Test

April 12th, 2012

By Dan Miller North Korea plans to launch an “Earth observation satellite” into orbit, possibly as soon as tonight New York time. The missile launch to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung is scheduled for between April 12th and 16th. All preparations, including fueling, are nearing completion. The final preparations [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: DPRK, Japan, missile, North Korea, nuclear, rocket, satellite, South Korea
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (0) | Home

Can a Nuclear Attack on Israel Be Compared Legitimately with the Holocaust?

March 6th, 2012

By Dan Miller It can be and should be. According to this article by the editor-in-chief of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s AIPAC speech moved closer than ever to the point of no return en route to war with Iran. Netanyahu compared Iran to Nazi Germany, its nuclear facilities to death camps, and [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: Holocaust, Hormuz, Iran, Israel, nuclear weapons, oil, terrorism, U.S., war
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (5) | Home

Vietnam and Afghanistan

March 1st, 2012

By Tom Carter This article was originally published in September 2009 — two and a half years ago. Unfortunately, it’s as relevant today as it was then. In late 1965, I was in Kontum, Vietnam as a pilot in a helicopter crew sent there for a few days to support U.S. Special Forces operations. I [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Afghanistan, Bernard Fall, failure, Islam, Taliban, terrorism, Vietnam
Categories: History, Military, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

What Happens After Korans Are Burned in Afghanistan?

February 29th, 2012

By Dan Miller Who did it, why and under what circumstances? What should and should not be done? The military justice system demands justice for our troops. It does not permit revenge upon them to curry favor with others, even our enemies. The burning of an unstated number of Korans in Afghanistan and the aftermath [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: Afghanistan, apologies, burning, Islam, justice, Koran, Quran, satire, trial
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

A Muse’s Art

February 14th, 2012

By Jan Barry Poets and artists since ancient times have fervently cited or called upon a female Muse for inspiration. Seldom did the Muse speak for herself. This thought arose as I read and reread a privately printed chapbook of poetry by Lovella Calica, the founder and director of Warrior Writers, a notably inspiring creative [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Lovella Calica, poetry, PTSD, veterans, war, Warrior Writers
Categories: Arts, Life, Military | Comments (1) | Home

Truth about the War in Afghanistan

February 8th, 2012

By Tom Carter If you haven’t seen it yet, you should read “Truth, lies and Afghanistan” by Lieutenant Colonel Daniel L. Davis, published by Armed Forces Journal. As LTC Davis puts it, “The American people deserve better than what they’ve gotten from their senior uniformed leaders over the last number of years. Simply telling the [...]

Articles written by Tom Carter
Tags: Afghanistan, Davis, failure, lies, report, success, truth
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

Italian Cruise Ship “runs aground”

January 14th, 2012

By Dan Miller It has been widely reported that the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia “slammed into shallow water off Italy’s western coast.” Authorities are looking at why the ship didn’t hail a mayday during the accident near the Italian island of Giglio on Friday night, officials said. “At the moment we can’t exclude that [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: aground, Costa Concordia, Giglio, Greece, Iran, Russia, submarine, torpedo
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

Our Foreign Policy Is OK for a Second-rate Nation

January 7th, 2012

By Dan Miller Herds of horses have leaders. They establish dominance by fighting all comers and by protecting the lesser horses within the herd. Eventually, fighting ceases to be necessary. A hard stare, the baring of teeth or even a kicking gesture become sufficient. Only when the dominant horse weakens or a new horse is [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: Ahmadinejad, Chavez, foreign policy, Iran, Latin America, Venezuela
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (0) | Home

Further Speculations on North Korea

January 3rd, 2012

By Dan Miller Strange things can happen behind closed doors. As I’ve observed many times, North Korea is a black hole from which little light emerges; what little useful information escapes usually consists of propaganda and speculation. Here’s some more speculation. Part of the Eurasia Group report about the top risks of 2012 involves North [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: DPRK, Kim Jong-un, North Korea, stability, succession, transition, violence
Categories: Military, News, Politics | Comments (1) | Home

Iraq: Hot News and History

December 29th, 2011

By Jan Barry “Crisis plagues Iraq as U.S. troops depart — As the last U.S. soldiers exited Iraq Sunday and debate was raging about the nation’s future, political crisis erupted in Baghdad that raised fears of more sectarian strife to come. Iraqiya, a powerful political bloc that draws support largely from Sunni and more secular [...]

Articles written by Jan Barry
Tags: Britain, casualties, costs, democracy, hubris, Iraq, U.S., violence
Categories: History, Military, News, Politics | Comments (3) | Home

Historical and Cultural Perspectives on Korea Are Necessary

December 21st, 2011

By Dan Miller Although from the same culture, the two Koreas are now very different. In February of this year, North Korea celebrated the sixty-ninth birthday of Dear (not really) Leader Kim Jong-il. Following the official announcement at noon on December 19th of his death on the morning of December 17th, there were many instant [...]

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: China, DPRK, Japan, Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un, North Korea, succession
Categories: History, Military, Politics | Comments (0) | Home

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