The end of 2024 for me marked two years on Substack. It’s been a great experience writing and coming across phenomenal writer essays that do a better job analyzing history and current events than most mainstream media/academia outlets. Hopefully my writing, in its own small way, has helped that endeavor.
Here is a round-up of a few select essays from the last year whose concepts and ideas still occupy my thoughts. Enjoy.
“War. War never changes.”
-Fallout
The idea of who decides what a war crime is and where the line between justice and simply brutal retribution, is a thin one.
The Peculiar Concept of War Crimes
On November 10th, 1865, Confederate Captain Henry Wirz stood on the gallows scaffolding at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington D.C. awaiting his execution by hanging. The former commander of Camp Sumter, better known as the infamous Andersonville military prison in Georgia, was convicted for
I really like going back in time and recounting these stories. Not enough is written about the 2001-present “War on Terror” period. Planning on a few more of these types of essays this year.
Stories from GWOT: Iraqi Oil Platform Defense
Long forgotten down the memory hole is that one of the promises of the Iraq War was the idea that oil revenues from the country were going to fund the massive expenses undertaken by America to invade and occupy the nation.
This one about Nikki “NeoCon” Haley putting high school hearts on bombs in Israel still angers me. If depictions of Muhammad can incite murderous anger, this stunt she pulled is no different.
The frightening reality is that America has become essentially an open-air mental facility across the nation, with 1000s of individuals who need to be seperated from society. For their safety and ours.
It's Time to Talk About Bringing Back Lunatic Asylums
"Don't remove a fence until you know why it was put up"
I’ve been repeating the phrase “Cargo Cult” Americans to describe this endless wave upon wave of unassimilated groups that continue to arrive in the country who purely want to be here for the benefits and handouts.
Cargo Cult Americans
In the 20th century, many Pacific islands that were out of the sphere of influence came into contact for the first time with the modern world. They saw ships that dwarfed their simple canoes and fishing dhows, airplanes that were first mistaken as fearsome beasts in the sky, and other inventions that were beyond imagination. This led to some interesting…
In my travels to the continent of Africa, it astounded me the idea held by many is the belief that Western foreign aid will always be a given, specifically in the form of food aid. No thought or possibility entertained that this could ever change due to geopolitical circumstance. Africa is on a knife edge of helplessness in this respect.
The African Time Bomb
President Biden was in Africa last week doing Biden things; falling asleep, apologizing for slavery, and promising billions of American tax dollars to the continent. Also dancing with the locals. The usual stuff. Count ourselves lucky that he didn’t
So, these are six essays I wanted to highlight from 2024. Looking forward to writing many more.
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just overflew your essays and very satisfied that I found another good source of interesting topics (war in general and in particular) and also historic mankind made "things" putting into todays perspective - thank you and keep going (just need to keep up reading/listening)