A new documentary film, Unknown: Killer Robots (2023), directed by Jesse Sweet and available on Netflix, addresses some of the perhaps surprising developments in artificial intelligence weaponry—above all, the specter of autonomous lethal aircraft systems programmed...
Since the October 7 attacks restarted conflict between Israel and Hamas, U.S. troops have been under fire all over the Middle East. Thus far, most attacks have been deflected with minimal damage, but it is only a matter of time before one gets through and causes a...
The Iron Dice of Battle: Albert Sidney Johnston and the Civil War in the West by Timothy B. Smith (LSU Press: 2023), 248 pages "You were still reading that book when I walked by three hours ago. It must be a good one." Sitting outside the cafe, I looked up to see a...
Another Christmas and there is still no peace on earth. And the proximate cause of that vexing reality is the $1.3 trillion warfare state planted on the banks of the Potomac—along with its web of war-making capabilities, bases, alliances and vassals stretching to the...
For a tragically short time, the Spirit of the Prince of Peace drowned out the murderous demands of the State. In August 1914, Europe's major powers threw themselves into war with gleeful abandon. Germany, a rising power with vast aspirations, plowed across Belgium,...
We're led to believe that today's political struggles are largely a contest between populists and elitists. But something besides libertarians is missing from that simple tale: the elitists in populist clothing, or elitist populists. We have no better example than a...
Talk the last few weeks in the corporate press about Taiwan is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has the coming January presidential election in the bag. They are probably right. The opposition parties, the Kuomintang (KMT) and smaller Taiwan People’s Party...
If you were to listen to the popular Bing Crosby version of the Christmas classic, "Do You Hear what I Hear?", you'd be forgiven for thinking the song is a simple diddy about the nativity of Christ, a very appropriate topic considering that this is what the holiday is...
