What are you reading?

[Gatordev]

You may think it is insignificant but I doubt if they think so.

I'm certainly no academic, but I do enjoy studying human nature, as well as reading some works from those that dealt with the Cold War Soviets in less than "normal" operations.

My basic take on "the Russians" is that they find anything significant that either furthers their cause or (in the same vein), makes them look like the victim. It's like they're the poor female DV victim on an episode of COPS, coupled with the Drama Lama.

 

[Flash]

As part of a multi-national coalition, the US did fight on Russian soil against the Red Army. You may think it is insignificant but I doubt if they think so.

As I'm sure Poland, the Baltics, Finland, the Czechs, Hungarians and...well, A LOT of countries, certainly think the same of Russia and its invasions of all them.

The sentiment remains, screw Russia and its pathetic bullshit excuses they are concocting to invade Ukraine.

 

[Random8145]

There is a book I am trying to find that I remember someone once mentioned on this website (not necessarily this forum) that talks about Soviet antisubmarine warfare and the corruption involved in how the Soviet military worked. It was mentioned in regards to China's military and how dictatorships tend to have corruption problems in their militaries that inhibit their capability.

Just wondering if anyone knows the book?

 

[Flash]

There is a book I am trying to find that I remember someone once mentioned on this website (not necessarily this forum) that talks about Soviet antisubmarine warfare and the corruption involved in how the Soviet military worked. It was mentioned in regards to China's military and how dictatorships tend to have corruption problems in their militaries that inhibit their capability.

Just wondering if anyone knows the book?

I'm sorry I don't know the book but I will say that whatever corruption issues China's military has pale in comparison to Russia's.

 

[Random8145]

I'm sorry I don't know the book but I will say that whatever corruption issues China's military has pale in comparison to Russia's.

Just curious, but what makes you think China's are less so?

 

[Flash]

Just curious, but what makes you think China's are less so?

China's procurement and deployment of weapon systems has been far more rapid and widespread and on a scale far greater than Russia's in the past two decades. The number and sophistication of the weaponry they have deployed in the last two decades is impressive to say the least, just look at their navy from corvettes to Arleigh Burke-like DDG's and even carrier, churning them out in a fraction of the time we have been doing the last few decades. They have also demonstrated some competence, while getting better at it, in staging large military exercises like their large-scale flights near Taiwan and extended deployments like their anti-piracy mission to the Middle East that is going on over a decade now. Then there is the obvious lack of Chinese oligarchs sailing around the SCS or South Seas, partying it up in Bali and Bangkok while buying sports teams and villas in Singapore. A quick review of Chinese development on the whole the past two decades makes it evident they can get things done, competently in many cases, without the same scale of the massive graft that exists in Russia.

That is not to say corruption and the attendant issues with it don't exist in China, they do on a scale much greater than they do in the West and especially the US, but it would be a critical mistake for folks to assume it impedes their military anywhere near to the degree like it does Russia.

 

[vibrissuss]

The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man. Surviving When Life Sucks. Schneider (Capt. USN. ret'd)

 

[ASTB-E_Student]

-Born to Run - Christopher McDougall

-Tribe, on homecoming and belonging - Sebastian Junger

- The Body Keeps the Score - Bessel A.van der Kolk

All great audio Books

 

[trakanon]

I just finished Team of Rivals: The political genius of Abraham Lincoln

 

[Randy Daytona]

Just ordered:

Spitfires and Yellow Tail Mustangs: The 52nd Fighter Group in World War Two​

by Tom Ivie and Paul Ludwig



Activated in January 1941, it moved to England in July 1942 for an assignment with the Eighth Air Force. It flew combat missions in Spitfires to France during the summer of 1942 before being reassigned to the invasion force attacking North Africa in November 1942. After moving to North Africa, it was assigned to the Twelfth Air Force and was again equipped with Spitfires. As part of the Twelfth Air Force, it flew combat missions in the Tunisian campaign, and during the invasion of Sicily. In mid-1944, the 52nd was reassigned to the Fifteenth Air Force and converted to P-51 Mustangs. During the remainder of the war, it flew bomber escort and strafing missions to targets in Italy, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Rumania, and Yugoslavia.

 

[number9]

I just finished Team of Rivals: The political genius of Abraham Lincoln

What did you think? It's been on my list to read since, well, forever, but I've never gotten around to it

 

[trakanon]

I thought it was great I am a fan of Lincoln now more than ever. I learned about this book from Stavridis leaders bookshelf, I'm slowly reading or listening to the books in order. I love the way Lincoln wrote and his talent for story telling he was a master of self control and conflict resolution.

 

[Randy Daytona]

Paul Kennedy has a new book that looks interesting- has anybody had a chance to read it yet?

Victory at Sea: Naval Power and the Transformation of the Global Order in World War II​

Victory at Sea: Naval Power and the Transformation of the Global Order in World War II: Kennedy, Paul, Marshall, Ian: 9780300219173: Amazon.com: Books

Victory at Sea: Naval Power and the Transformation of the Global Order in World War II [Kennedy, Paul, Marshall, Ian] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Victory at Sea: Naval Power and the Transformation of the Global Order in World War II

www.amazon.com

And a review from Foreign Policy Magazine:

The Navy Made America a Superpower Once. Can It Again?

Paul Kennedy made his name bemoaning America’s decline. Now, he highlights a way to reverse it.

foreignpolicy.com

 

[Random8145]

Happened to reread this article in The Atlantic about Peter Turchin and his thesis on the over-production of elites causes societal instability. Has anyone read Ages of Discord or any of the author’s other books?

THE NEXT DECADE COULD BE EVEN WORSE​

A historian believes he has discovered iron laws that predict the rise and fall of societies. He has bad news.

The Next Decade Could Be Even Worse

A historian believes he has discovered iron laws that predict the rise and fall of societies. He has bad news.

www.theatlantic.com

Ages of Discord: A Structural-Demographic Analysis of American History​

Ages of Discord: A Structural-Demographic Analysis of American History: Turchin, Peter: 9780996139540: Amazon.com: Books

Ages of Discord: A Structural-Demographic Analysis of American History [Turchin, Peter] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Ages of Discord: A Structural-Demographic Analysis of American History

www.amazon.com

Historical analysis shows that long spells of equitable prosperity and internal peace are succeeded by protracted periods of inequity, increasing misery, and political instability. These crisis periods—“Ages of Discord”—have recurred in societies throughout history. Modern Americans may be disconcerted to learn that the US right now has much in common with the Antebellum 1850s and, more surprisingly, with ancien régime France on the eve of the French Revolution. Can it really be true that there is nothing new about our troubled time, and that similar ages arise periodically for similar underlying reasons? Ages of Discord marshals Structural-Demograpic Theory and detailed historical data to show that this is, indeed, the case.

A lot of our current discord is just due to Covid and the extreme political correctness that has developed (IMO) which causes the Left to act completely paranoid and even violent over Republican presidents. Covid of course caused strife, then all the money they injected into the economy to make up the salaries for people not being able to work triggered inflation, and then Putin decides to invade Ukraine. But otherwise, I do not see anything akin to a civil war or revolution occurring because the civil war was over the South seceding due to slavery and we don't have an equivalent of that today, and the French revolution, the people were tired of being so economically depressed. People today have it too good to be wanting any revolution.

 

[Random8145]

HA! We were discussing just what Putin was thinking and our resident Sovietologist, yes he actually (sorta) trained to be one about 20 years too late, said pretty much the same exact thing, that the Russians are paranoid and gloomy and that extends to their geopolitical outlook.

I don't think it'll ever get past their thick heads that we don't care that much about them, at all, much less want to invade them.

IMO the main thing that shocked the Russians into a paranoia was the German invasion in WWII. The level of violence conducted was so great that they gained a permanent distrust of the West. That said, they also have an inherent aggression and thus the idea that the former Soviet and Warsaw Pact nations should not become members of NATO, that this "provoked" Russia, well maybe so in some ways, but tough, because those nations know that without any such protection, they'd be subjected to constant bullying by Russia. They lived under Russian rule during the Soviet times and clearly did not like it.