“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards
and its fighting by fools.” (Thucydides)

Dearest SOFREP readership,

It is with some sadness I write to inform you that this will be my last post here for a while. Life is nothing but a journey, and the time has come for me to hang up my hat writing for this special site and transition to the next phase of the adventure. As it presently stands, life leads me away from active duty and towards destinations unknown. While no one knows what the future holds (which very well could see me return at some point), I now say farewell and thank you.

SOFREP is something special– you know this. I think Brandon and others recognized this early on when the site was founded, and it has largely been full steam ahead since then. I consider it a privilege to have first begun writing for SOFREP around 2013 and continued to do so until 2015, when I took a brief hiatus, only to resume these past few months.

We have had many great discussions on this site, ranging from various op-eds to other analyses covering the politicization of intelligence, foreign policy, Russian bounties, and countless others. I was never left unimpressed after some deep discourse in the comments. I was left comforted knowing that respectful, thoughtful, and meaningful engagement could, in fact, occur online (and on a wide variety of controversial topics nonetheless) — even if we had to agree to disagree at points! As we have joked, this just needs to be replicated at the national level. And no, you will not, alas, see a 14Charlie running for office at any point, although others among us may be far better suited for the job (looking at you, Daniel).

“The only thing that isn’t worthless: to live this life out truthfully and rightly. And be patient with those who don’t.”

Indeed, it is a privilege to have had access for one’s writing to a platform such as SOFREP — let alone a platform with such a respectful, active, informed, and caring readership. I have expressed as much to Nick and Stavros, who have been nothing but professional in their diligent execution of editorial duties.

As I say my farewell here, know that I will maintain access to my primary writing email address, which I (boldly, perhaps) make available to you should anyone wish to write to me. I cannot and will certainly not promise a timely response, but will check the email periodically when reminiscing of days past. You can reach me at 14charlie@protonmail[.]com. Of course, I also maintain a limited presence on Twitter to satisfy my “doomscrolling” cravings and can be followed there @cstrikesback as well. I look forward to any future dialogue.

To those readers who comprise the “soul” of SOFREP — Godspeed!

I remain, bureaucratically yours,

-14C

Thanks for listening.

“Sometimes you feel that you are beginning to lose heart and that everything is getting on top of
you. This kills your good desires and you can hardly manage to overcome this feeling even by
making acts of hope. Never mind: this is a good time to ask God for more grace. Then, go on!
Renew your joy for the struggle, even though you might lose the odd skirmish.”