In bello parvis momentis magni casus intercedunt. In war events of importance are the result of trivial causes.
—Julius Caesar
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Category Archives: Leadership
A Thought Experiment
Pretend you are member of the armed forces out on the pointy end of the spear—a pilot, paratrooper, submariner, etc.—and you found out that your senior commander had promised to give a potential enemy commander advanced warning that you were being sent on an operation against him. How might this affect you confidence in your chain of command?
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It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin.
—James Monroe
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I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.
—Bob Dylan
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When you tell a lie often enough, you become unable to distinguish it from the truth.
—Jordan Peterson
Everything Is Proceeding As I Have Foreseen
I wish I were wrong, but I’m not.
I understand the frustration of the actual warriors feel because of the incompetence of the the generals and admirals who are supposed to be leading them. I turned down a promotion to major and left the Army Reserve rather than continue to serve under Carter’s Pentagon crowd.
I foresee that Carter’s second term was much too optimistic an expectation for the Xiden Administration. Let’s pray that we can still avoid the likes of Buchanan’s second term.
The Next Few Years …
… will very likely be difficult. The catastrophes of the the Buchanan and Carter Administrations occurred during the final years of their terms. We have not been so fortunate this time.
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There is small risk a general will be regarded with contempt by those he leads, if, whatever he may have to preach, he shows himself best able to perform.
—Xenophon
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Leadership is the capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence.
—Bernard Montgomery
Non-Stranded Non-Hostages
White House press flack Jen Psaki has admitted that it is likely that there will be American citizens still stranded in Afghanistan after 31 August. Indeed, given the current progress in the evacuations, there will probably be thousands of Americans who want out and who can’t get out by 1 September.
There were only 52 American hostages trapped in Tehran in 1979/80.
You know that thing about Carter’s second term being the best case scenario. It was clearly too optimistic.
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Confusion and panic usually appear wherever there is no adequate organization or appropriate leadership at a time of grim trials.
—Georgy Zhukov
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A prince or general can best demonstrate his genius by managing a campaign exactly to suit his objectives and his resources, doing neither too much nor too little.
—Carl von Clausewitz
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C’est pire qu’un crime, c’est une faute. It’s worse than a crime; it’s a blunder.
—Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien
Another Tough Decision
Or maybe not.
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The greatest success goes to the person who is not afraid to fail in front of even the largest audience.
—David Packard
The Inner Party’s Dilemma
Joe Xiden is a failed president, and his handling of the Afghanistan debacle is grounds for impeachment. Indeed, if he were a prime minister in a parliamentary democracy, he would have either resigned or have lost a vote of no-confidence by now.
But the United States isn’t a parliamentary democracy. We’re a federal republic with separate legislative and executive branches. Xiden can’t just be sent to the back benches while his party maintains its majority in the legislature. If Xiden is deposed, Kamala Harris will leave her role in the Senate to become President. That will leave the Senate split 50/50, giving the Republicans an effective veto on her nomination of the new VP. They can leave the post vacant, ending the Democrats’ ability to break ties. If Harris replaces Xiden, their legislative agenda is dead. That doesn’t mean that some of it won’t slip through, but the overreach used to push it through will not sit well with most voters.
The various Inner Party factions will spend the next weeks and months in damage control mode. There will be a lot of infighting, and the collateral damage to America may be severe. But I expect they will so weaken themselves that 2022 will not be a good year for the Left.
Stay tuned.
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Be of one mind and one faith, that you may conquer your enemies and lead long and happy lives.
—Genghis Khan
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When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, “Look, here’s what happened.”
—Joe Biden
Don’t Know Much About History
Oh, yes I can—George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, James K. Polk, Calvin Coolidge, Ronald Reagan, Andrew Jackson, Dwight Eisenhower, James Madison, Harry Truman,Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Adams, Donald Trump, Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, Rutherford B. Hayes, Gerald Ford, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, John Kennedy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, George H. W. Bush, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, Herbert Hoover, Lyndon Johnson, George W. Bush, Benjamin Harrison, Millard Filmore, Chester A. Arthur, Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, William Henry Harrison, James Garfield, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, John Tyler, Warren G. Harding, Woodrow Wilson, Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan.
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If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power.
—Theodore Roosevelt
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Apparently you can’t be president with a whole brain.
—Zaphod Beeblebrox
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One bleeding-heart type asked me in a recent interview if I did not agree that ‘violence begets violence.’ I told him that it is my earnest endeavor to see that it does. I would like very much to ensure—and in some cases I have—that any man who offers violence to his fellow citizen begets a whole lot more in return than he can enjoy.
—Jeff Cooper
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Hysteria will not help us to solve the problem that confronts us.
—Calvin Coolidge
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I can’t die but once.
—Harriet Tubman
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It’s the Simple things that are really effective. Try to remember that.
—Theodore Sturgeon