Category: Expert Analysis

An open letter written by a retired Lieutenant Colonel who served on the faculty at West Point has made its rounds on social media, prompting an outcry from West Point alumni and a direct response from the Superintendent, Lieutenant General Robert Caslen. The letter has surfaced in response to the publication of a sworn statement, […]

Getting into shape really isn’t as mysterious as it seems.  An entire marketing industry has pushed the idea that you need expert advice and expensive diet plans to drop a few pounds, but the reality of the mechanism is really pretty simple: burn more calories than you take in, and the rounder parts of your […]

Madrid—The Catalonia crisis has reached its peak. On Tuesday, the Catalan Parliament signed a unilateral declaration of independence.  It came in the wake of an illegal and highly contentious referendum in which 90% of voters chose independence, but the turnout was just 43%. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, however, suspended the implementation of the declaration for the […]

After getting out of the Marine Corps, I immediately enrolled in college and set about on a life path that I thought would offer my family the most stability and financial security my background would allow, which for me, meant working for one the many defense contractors based in the Boston area… And trust me, […]

Many people like to scroll through the books of their favorite author, knocking them off the list one by one.  Are you a Faulkner fan?  Start reading “Go Down,” “Moses,” “The Sound and the Fury,” and “As I Lay Dying.”  Does Mark Twain spark your enthusiasm?  Dive into the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” followed by “Life […]

You’re 16, at the movies with your friends, and the main character swings around a corner wielding a pistol held waist-high.  He fires a couple of shots with his other hand sticking out awkwardly like he’s balancing on a tightrope, and yet every shot lands either directly in the center of the forehead or straight […]

“El peixos grossos sempre es menjaran els minuts.”  If your Catalan is as bad as mine, it means “Men are like fish; the great ones devour the small.” A proverb that describes how a lot—but not all—of Catalans feel about their place in Spain. On October 1st, the Catalan government held an illegal independence referendum. […]

Thanks to the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling into the 2016 presidential election, there’s been an increased focus on just how things like social media can be used to affect the mindset of your average American voter.  While some have taken a decisive stand regarding the subject, stating outright that foreign efforts to influence an […]

Less than one month after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, President George W. Bush created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and in that one decision, enacted the most sweeping rearrangement of the federal bureaucracy seen since the creation of the CIA, the National Security Council and the modern-day Department of Defense back […]

In the following video I take a moment to describe some of the various sling designs. I take into account my own personal experiences as well as those I’ve served with and currently serve with. Although there is not a one size fits all when it comes to sling selection, there may be a couple novel […]

It was the second Monday of the eighth grade when terrorists came to my school and killed six people.  They came with AKs, fully expecting to slaughter as many children as they could. I was walking from a classroom to the library when the first shots went off.  My initial thought was that someone was […]

Many writers have taken up the pen to detail the dark vigilante missions of Vietnam-veteran turned murder machine Frank Castle.  Some of those writers were pretty good.  Most of them sucked.  The best of them was living legend and modern-day god, Garth Ennis. The Irish-born writer always had the strongest grasp on who the Punisher […]