Category: Featured

The United Kingdom was hit with a targeted nerve agent attack on March 4, sending a former Russian spy and his daughter into the hospital in critical condition. It has caused an international outrage, as Russia has a long history of brazen attacks and assassinations on foreign soil, though this one has been more blatant […]

“The Epic of Gilgamesh” is widely considered the oldest piece of literature in existence today, though the original author (or authors) are unknown. From ancient Mesopotamia, the story follows Gilgamesh, a demigod who is both a great warrior and all around good-looking guy. After some questionable escapades at the beginning, the gods create for him […]

Haider al-Abadi, the Prime Minister for Iraq, has ordered the Kurdish Regional Government to allow the central Iraqi government to take control of Kurdistan’s airports on a federal level. This will be the first step in re-opening Kurdistan’s airports since their closure during the Kurdish independence referendum. Abadi stated, “Based on constitutional jurisprudence, the reopening of […]

A Russian nerve agent has been making the headlines after the assassination attempt of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. The former was a Russian military intelligence officer charged spying on his own, and the latter was his daughter. After some prison time, Mr. Skripal took his daughter and they were traded to England where they could be […]

There are certain memories that snap you back to the past. Smell can carry you all the way back to the earliest memories, like Grandma’s house on a Sunday, or freshly cut grass in the morning. The sharp bite of the cold can bring back memories of childhood Christmas, or training missions in the worst […]

When people think of the loss of life in a war, they generally think of soldiers sustaining traumatic injuries. However, conditions on the battlefield are anything but healthy, and disease has often inflicted serious casualties on forces that scramble through months of jungle mountains, or scrape through muddy trenches for weeks on end, and sometimes […]

In the last few months, Turkey has been slowly but steadily raising the temperature in the Aegean. First was the collusion of a Turkish coast guard ship with a Greek navy ship on January 17th, near the Imia islets. Then, a month later, on February 16th, we had the ramming of a Greek coast guard […]

A compressed environment is perhaps one of the most dangerous and relentless setting you can deal with in CQB. It can be inside of a car, suburban terrain, a corridor or a room – the principle is simple, a tight environment without many possibilities and a quick cause-effect relationship. The main issue with compressed environments […]

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 […]