Category: Featured

If you have heard of Sun Tzu and “The Art of War,” then you’ve probably seen this: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you […]

March 9, 1862:  It was the second year of the American Civil War, and the confederacy had acquired a frigate by the name of the U.S.S. Merrimack. They altered the ship, heavily armoring it and adding significantly more firepower, turning it into a formidable ironclad ship, the C.S.S. Virginia. The boat absolutely pummeled wooden Union […]

The VA has long been entangled in controversy, and they seem to constantly be going from scandal to another. There are many good-willed and honest officials, but corruption has certainly taken hold on a significant number of ranking VA employees. Of course there are the problems with slow and/or poor service, pitfalls with the transplant […]

There are a few movies that stand out when I think of tactically legitimacy on the screen. Of course “John Wick” and its sequel will always stand out, but — despite Keanu Reeves’ awesome display of firearm proficiency — they aren’t necessarily meant to be 100% realistic, they’re meant to be awesome and entertaining. Which […]

Last week, Russia President Vladmir Putin delivered an address that included quite a bit of nuclear rhetoric that was as reminiscent of the Soviet era as Putin himself. From new intercontinental ballistic missiles designed specifically to circumvent U.S. defenses to cruise missiles with nuclear propulsion and near limitless fuel reserves … it would seem that […]

A former Russian military intelligence colonel convicted of spying for the UK appears to have been the victim of an assassination attempt in Salisbury, England on Sunday. Sergei Skripal, 66, was convicted in Russian courts of passing the identities of Russian operatives in Europe and the UK to the secret intelligence agency MI6. He was […]

This morning, I have heard the voices from the Special Operations community, along with many of our readers, loud and clear. They are angry and disappointed that SOFREP chose to publish helmet camera footage from the ambush in Niger back in October in which two U.S. Special Forces soldiers and two support soldiers killed. We […]

It was March 5, 1770. Boston was a central shipping town, important in the eyes of the British as they moved goods to and from the eastern coast of the New World. It was night, and many colonists had rallied together near the Customs House in town and started throwing snowballs at a British soldier […]

A young man, aspiring to become enlightened, was climbing a steep mountain path one day when he came across an old monk carrying a heavy sack. With nothing more than a glance, the young man could tell that this old monk had achieved enlightenment, his awareness, his presence, his inner peace emanated from below the […]

There is a kind of mythological component when people talk about invading Russia in the winter. A lot of people imagine Hitler, rashly deciding to invade the northern country during the coldest time of year, just as Napoleon had, and their asses getting handed to them by both the terrible cold and the Russians who […]

For those unfamiliar with the phrase, “uncanny valley,” it’s usually used to describe inanimate objects that bear a striking resemblance, either through appearance or behavior, to human beings. That unsettling sense of familiarity combined with the supremely foreign leaves the observer feeling uncomfortably, uneasy, and in some cases, even threatened. If you’re still having a […]

“Why do you keep these tactics so simple?” That’s a question I get sometimes by thoughtful students in my classes. There is a moment in life where you realize that all those paths you created in that dense forest of problems in your head might not be accessible when you venture into the dark. Whether […]