I am pleased to announce that my historical novel, “My Honor is my Loyalty: War in the East” has been published.

An old man looks back to a time when he was an officer in the Waffen-SS. He recalls his youthful indoctrination as he grew up in a totalitarian nation where the doctrines of military strength, racial superiority and the cult of death ruled the land. Covering his volunteering and postings, he relives the battles against the partisan on the Eastern Front and the Balkans, recalling the actions of the SS killing squads against the inhabitants as well as personally experiencing the bitter taste of defeat. It also includes my interview with Otto Skorzeny at his home in Madrid, shortly before his death.

It is available in print and Kindle at Amazon and in print at Barnes & Noble.

There are getting to be a number of “trigger” words, which when heard, should make you immediately be on your guard. Normally these trigger words are spoken by an individual or group who present themselves as having a plan which will make your life better. As a rule, they spring up from the Left and their mission may be to save the planet, or save some particular species, or it is to ensure “equity” which will be better for everyone. There is always an entire pantheon of causes that need to be put right. They talk a lot about what a glorious future they offer but somehow never manage to tell you the price in either economic or very personal terms. They remain true to their mission no matter the actual results, assuring themselves and their audience that success is just around the corner.

Such promises are nothing new for if we read our history, great promises of utopia were the rationale of the various five-year plans under Stalin. There were great successes as well as great failures, but the promised utopia never arrived and the millions who paid the ultimate price were swept into the dustbin of history.

More recently we have seen a great march to “net zero,” especially in Europe. Germany has spent untold billions of Euros on their particular march with the end result being that the cost of energy is among the highest in the world, industries are leaving for nations with lower energy costs, unemployment is creeping into industries which were the mainstay of the economy and finally, the air is no cleaner, in fact it is dirtier than before the great march to “net zero”.  It is as if the political leadership of Germany had just arrived from another planet and did not realize the realities of German weather. The fact that most of Germany only gets 150-200 days of sunshine is something that the planners of solar power never realized.

Learn from mistakes? Why do that when the architects of failure can always count on the mild nature of the people they rule? Spain and Portugal are recent examples of failure when both countries suffered electrical failures of a size never before experienced in the history of humanity. The result? The leaders of both nations swore to move even faster toward net zero, putting the health and well-being of the citizens ever more into a danger zone.

The quest for left of center rulers to dominate and control the lives of those they rule is never ending. The attached article focuses on the concept of “15-minute cities”, where your ability to travel freely and participate in an open society will be discouraged. Do the rulers in this situation believe that their citizens will be happier, more prosperous, more creative? That is not what they offer. They claim that such cities will be better able to withstand challenges like they faced during Covid. So, do we completely restructure civilization in the belief that we will face more Covid type challenges in the future? When will the next pandemic show up? In a year, five years, 50 years? We are expected to give up our freedoms for an event that might very well not occur in our lifetime. Given that the “scientific” leaders were so disastrous wrong about the value of masks, distancing, shutting down schools, churches and businesses, not to mention insisting that those with the highest immunity be forced to take a vaccine which could counter-act their natural immunity, why would we accept that “15 minute cities” will be any more successful than more open societies?

It is always nice to look at a project or plan and imagine the wonderful upside of success. But we must be realistic how many of those golden promises have ever been fulfilled. We need to be more willing to ask and demand answers on what are the dangers on the downside. If the downside risk is greater, or more easily achieved than the upside, perhaps we need to tread a bit more cautiously.

The War on City-Dwellers: ‘Climate Change’: Grift of the Century, Part III :: Gatestone Institute

Europe is going through a challenging time. For decades it has lived in a never-never land of social welfare programs designed to provide its’ citizens with ever immagionable comfort: free schools for as long as you wish to remain an adolexcent, free health care, job protection, and so much more. Of course, those “perks” of life are not really free, they are paid for by high taxes. But it was a compact between the government and the people. This promise could be fulfilled as long as the United States provided for the protection of Europe thus freeing billions of Euros annually and the demographic balance could be maintained.

Unfortunately, that compact was broken; the governments upset the balance by allowing seemingly unlimited migration of people who do not have a tradition of Western liberal democracy values, who want the “goodies” of the west without having to produce anything has disrupted the compact. Somehow the leaders of the EU managed to convince themselves that individuals from societies morally grounded in the fourteen century would provide the technocrats, doctors, engineers, and other skilled professions needed to maintain their standard of living.

Additionally, the umbrella of U.S. protection begain to be pulled back. With a new major economic and military threat growing in Asia, the U.S. began to question, why should the U.S. spend its precious wealth protecting someone else who had no desire to protect themselves?

Finally, while the leaders of the E.U. claim that President Trump is a threat to democracy, it is the Europeans themselves who are passing laws aimed at limiting speech and even thought.
The quiet secret that no one has mentioned for decades suddenly has come into the light; most of Western Europe has been suffering from societal atrophy. Europe has lost their economic edge; they have contributed little to recent technologies, their militaries were often decades behind the times, their industry is moribund, their tax system and bureaucracy stifle those who are innovative and reduce their capital for new ventures.

The attached lightly edited speech by Vice President J.D. Vance points out a number of threats to the E.U., all of them internal and all of them created by the governments of the E.U. The E.U. cannot regain its’ strength by fining American tech companies because Europe does not have the ability to compete, nor can the E.U. claim to stand for the dignity of man when they warn people not to pray in their own homes if they are within a “buffer zone” around an abortion clinic. If a politician can use the law against a citizen because the politicians “dignity” or “feelings” have been hurt, then it is time for those politicians to realize they are there to serve and not to act as if they wear the purple. Crimes by those immigrants who cannot and will not assimilate have been covered up for years and arresting those who expose them only go to undercut the trust between the governed and the governments.

It was said that no one had ever spoken to European leaders like Vice President Vance and that is too bad. Continuing to follow a failed path is the mark of stupidity and we all want to believe that there are still rational, strong leaders in Europe who can reverse the course of failure.

Europe Must Listen to Its People – The American Mind

Jim Sciutto is CNN’s chief national security analyst as well as anchor of CNN Newsroom on Max, airing Monday through Friday afternoons. He has reported from over fifty countries including assignments in such challenging countries as Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan. For this excellent book, he has pulled on his many years of experience and connections, interviewing dozens of intelligence officers, politicians, fellow news correspondents and others.

His premise is that although some thought that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 would herald what Franics Fukuyama called “The End of History” (how will he ever live that phrase down?). Sciutto instead says that we may well be facing a 1939 moment. The reason is that powerful nations continue to act in their perceived best interests. John Kerry amazingly said after Putin first invaded Ukraine, “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped-up pre-text,” Kerry said. “It is serious in terms of the sort of modern manner with which nations are going to resolve problems. There are all kinds of other options still available to Russia.”  He sounded like a Western European leader who had lived under the U.S. umbrella of protection for decades and had come to believe in their own moral superiority; “we just don’t do those kinds of things.”

In this book, Sciutto discusses numerous potential “flash points’ around the world, including the Baltic countries, Taiwan, Ukraine, Africa, and others including the possibility of the use of tactical nuclear weapons which is part of the Russian military doctrine. He examines the steps taken by China’s XI and the challenges he faces with a faltering economy after consolidating so much power into his hands, thus losing the cover of “collectivism.” In each of these examples, he often goes a step further and asks or presents the “next question,” which sets him apart from the talking-heads we see all the time.

He also briefly discusses the kabuki dance that goes on between intelligence services and the press. For some reason, the press seems to believe that they should be privy to everything the intelligence services know or are investigating while expecting the gathering of intelligence to be a cut and dried exercise. When intelligence misses an event, such as the Russian invasion of the Crimea, the press is sure to criticize, and such an error makes the press more critical of the process. At the same time, intelligence views the press as a group only interested in “selling papers” and a group incapable of understanding how intelligence works. Finally, there are world leaders who are skeptical of both the press and the intelligence community, preferring to believe their own individual prejudices and wishes in place of contrary information.

I would recommend this book for anyone who needs a course in critical thinking. The step-by-step technique Sciutto uses to present his case is refreshing. It would be interesting to know if and how many members of the press have read this book and if they did, how they would review it.

We live in a time where so many people have so many solutions to problems which they have managed to create in their own minds. It is a real wonder of our time; “Because I cannot get what I want, we have a major problem. Here is my brilliant idea on how to fix it.” 

Most of the time, the individuals who think that way are harmless, but lately we have been seeing major political figures who should know better producing their crazy solutions. “My candidate did not win, let’s do away with the elector college,” or “the Supreme Court (which does overturn previous rulings), ruled in a way I do not agree with, let’s have term limits on the Justices.” And, who wants to do away with the elector college? Politicians who go to court to overturn the will of the voters. Who wants to institute term limits on Supreme Court Justices? Politicians who have lived at the public trough for forty, fifty or more years and who have virtually nothing to show for their years of “public service.”  Indeed, the only thing they have created is a huge public debt.

The attached article discusses the rational for our Constitution protections, how they have served and protected us and how we are in danger if we decide to chip away at those protections. Before we go on a great crusade to redo or “improve” our Federal Constitution, remember the great lives in the film, A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt:

“William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”

Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”

William Roper: “Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!”

Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!”

― Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons: A Play in Two Acts

So, do we really want to trust our futures to men or women who have given us only failure and division?  I hope you enjoy the article.

The Very Real Perils of Weakening Checks on Federal Power (dailysignal.com)

There have been many promises of opportunities which high tech and the gig economy were going to provide, such as millions of high paying jobs. Not only promises of high pay, but the ability to be free from having to work from centralized offices, which would increase productivity as workers could work from home or remote offices. How have those promises worked out? Have we seen a real increase in wages and opportunities for millions of recent college graduates? Have older workers felt more secure when they realized that the face-to-face semi-personal contact, they had with management is gone? And where are all those fantastic new jobs?

The attached video provides some answers as we see individuals working for $.30 per hour or less. But hey, it is the new world of the gig economy. What futures do these workers, or the millions of others like them see? Are these jobs preparing them so that they can move forward during the next ten, twenty or even forty years of their lives? It is becoming a brave new world in which the times of Upton Sinclair’s’ muckraking novels may actually be viewed as a better time. Indeed, the reality shown in this video points to the worse fears and ideas of science fiction writers who foresaw a dark and cold future for humanity.

Prior to this volume, Holger Herwig’s book, The First World War, Germany and Austria-Hungary 1914-1918 was in my opinion, the finest book which not only dealt with the military aspects of the war but focused more on the civilian cost of the war.  Watson’s book goes beyond Herwig’s work in detailing the almost immediate impact of the war on the citizens of the two powers. 

Surrounded by hostile states, with the rapid rearmament of Czarist Russia after its defeat in its war with Japan, a French paranoia and demand for revenge for its defeat in 1870, a weak and untrusted ally in Italy which demanded lands held by the Austrian’s and an self-important Serbia which sought a “Greater Serbia” at the expense of Austria-Hungary, time did not appear to be on the side of the Central Powers.  A mistaken belief of the Austrian military command that a short, sharp war could both eliminate the troublesome Serbs and be localized entirely ignored the expansionist plans of Russia as well as Russia’s desire to appear strong after its military defeat and its humiliation by Austria over Bosnia a decade before.  The result was a domino effect as one nation after another seemed to stumble into war based on military time tables and a lack especially by the Czar of what “mobilization” really meant.

From the beginning, the Central Powers were faced with food shortages which they tried to make up by a ruthless exploitation of areas their armies won on the battlefield.  It could never be enough however, to counter the internationally illegal tight British blockade of even neutral shipping.  Additionally, it seemed that Austria and Hungary, the two halves of the Empire were fighting different wars, with disputes over goals, command and most importantly, shipments of Hungarian grains and fats to Austria, especially after the rich province of Galicia was overrun and laid to waste by the Russian army.  Rationing was imposed but poorly administered but the concept of all for the front held the people together until even their patience was exhausted by the inflated promises of victory as the casualty lists become ever greater.

The running of the war by Ludendorff in Germany and his concept of total command of the economy was a failure.  The one shortcoming I found in the book was a claim that arms production actually decreased under Ludendorff but there were no statistics to demonstrate the point.

This volume (about 750 pages) provides an excellent examination of a civilian world under huge stress.  The inability of the Central Powers to provide basic living needs for its population led to purely physical exhaustion for millions of citizens.  It is no wonder that later, Hitler would proclaim the need for Lebensraum which was partially responsible for his drive to the East.

A highly detailed book, well written and of value to anyone interested in the often-forgotten civilians who face so much in so many wars.

This is a most unusual little book, for it goes against the grain in terms of how a veteran explains and remembers his time in the military. Unlike other memoirs, where the good and bad of military service is balanced, Bottger makes it clear from the first that he not only hated military service, he was willing to take almost any step to survive the war including lying and physical subterfuge to remain as much as possible safety behind the front lines. 

All armies seek to make the average person into an individual that will obey orders without a second’s hesitation. The tools are as old as armies themselves, and include rote exercises and drills, demands of physical dexterity, irritations that have no point and even individual humiliation. Bottger paints an excellent picture of his introduction into the military and like millions of others, he hated most of the acts and demands inflicted on him. Additionally, he completely ignores any feelings of duty, comradeship, or pride in his “contribution” to the war effort. He makes no claim to being anti-Nazi, does not rale against the injustice of the war; in fact, he is totally detached from any motivation in life other than total self-centered survival.

Bottger managed to spend a remarkable small amount of time in actual combat but did commit an act of self-sacrifice on one occasion in attempting to rescue a tanker from a burning tank. Despite his dislike of the military, he was proud when he was awarded for that bravery and seems to have attended reunions of his division after the war. At the same time, he does not seem to have given any thought to the individual who went to serve in his stead as he managed to stay in a “safe” space by lying about his injuries.

There are few soldiers who hunger for battle and most accept the role that forces them to be in a position where one kills an enemy. Bottger rejected that role and while some may say that it could even be deemed noble, if placed in a war setting, I for one would not want a man to the left or right of me with the mindset of the author.

When one thinks of Russia, the image of the Kremlin comes to mind.  In modern times (since 1917), the Kremlin has stood as the powerful image of a country which is difficult to grasp regarding its size, peoples and politics.  And, for most of history, the Kremlin has been used as the political seat of power in Russia.  Possession of this complex, which was built of wood for most of history and which has been destroyed by fire numerous times, has legitimized and symbolized the power of its owner.

Peter the Great moved his seat of government from Moscow to his new city on the sea (St. Petersburgh, then Petrograd, then Leningrad and finally St. Petersburgh) in order to start anew, away from the boyars (nobles) so he could make Russia look to the West.  The Bolsheviks moved the seat of power back to the Kremlin to show their break with the past and today the Kremlin remains the seat of Russian power, poised half way between the West and the East.  The Kremlin symbolizes the strength, stability and secret nature of the Russian state.

Burned, rebuilt, burned again and again, many treasures of the Kremlin have been lost, rebuilt and lost over the centuries.  Precious icons, jewels, rich gowns not to mention at times, the nations gold reserves were stored in the Kremlin.  Additionally, numerous churches and palaces of the closest noblemen were within it walls and all subject to the drives and whims of the Czar. It is as if Ft. Knox, the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian were all gathered together in a few square acres and closed to the public.  Then, time after time again the complex suffered from massive fires.

No one really knows the full extent of the secret rooms and tunnels within the compound. And, it represents an opportunity for miracles to the Russian people; a few years ago a sacred icon rumored to have been destroyed by the Bolsheviks were “found” as they had been secretly preserved by workers when they were sealed behind a false wall.  Although church attendance in Russia is falling, the “miraculous” recovery of the long-lost icon showed again the eternal strength and power of the Kremlin and its current “Czar” Vladimir Putin.

Several years ago, before Mr. Trump became President Trump, Peggy Noonan wrote a very good article called, Trump and the Rise of the Unprotected to explain to those who oppose Trump, the cause of his rise. Ms. Noonan, hardly an admirer of Trump, pointed out that those who oppose Trump were in the process of going through the five stages of grief but were still stuck between steps four and five. His opponents could not understand how anyone could support this crude man when his faults were so evident to “everyone.”

The gist of her argument was that there were two groups in America, the protected and the unprotected. The protected held the best jobs, lived in the best neighborhoods with the best schools and the finest police protection. They wrote the rules and made sure that the rules were slanted in their favor. They were the captains of industry, especially the new tech industry; they were the faceless bureaucrats who had secure jobs protected not only by civil service rules, but by powerful unions who contributed to the politicians who depended on their campaign funds to remain in positions of power far removed from the “little” people, often called taxpayers.

The unprotected were the mirror image of the protected only in reverse. The unprotected lived from day to day, struggled to pay huge college bills, increased taxes and fees, inflation, etc. The key driver of the unprotected that gave such a boost to Trump was migration which according to Ms. Noonan, was based on the realization that, “Democrats won’t protect you and the Republicans won’t help you.” Thus, the unprotected had to face the impact of immigration while the protected were sheltered from the reality of their decisions.

While the article was good, it did leave out a couple of items which were important. The first is that her article seemed to imply that the numerical difference between the protected and unprotected was minor; in reality, the unprotected realize that it is more of an imbalance somewhere in the range of the 1% vs. the 99%. Such an imbalance makes the unprotected realize that the game can never change unless something radical happens. That radical change was Trump. He spoke their language, he knew how the game was played (although not as much as he thought), and he offered simple solutions to the fears of the unprotected.

The other area where she missed the boat, through no fault of her own, was the idea that no one in power was going to answer the problem of illegal immigration. Trump did so even though he had to fight the process for years of his administration. The proof of his success we see today, and we have seen it for three years in an out-of-control border put in place the first day of the Biden administration via Executive Orders. The unprotected see illegal immigrants sheltered, fed, and tolerated while their own children are forced into virtual classes and their tax dollars are diverted from local police protection and local service to benefit the illegals.

Today, the protected are still, after spending tens of millions of dollars in hearings, lawsuits, and special investigators asking how is it that Trump is still standing. Perhaps, just perhaps it is because they themselves are so blind to their own arrogance and hypocrisy. Their policies, however well-meaning, run contrary to the history of humanity and human nature. The unprotected remember that despite all of Trump’s faults, there were better times when he stood against the protected. That is his strength.