Shows of force: U.S. and Russia bring, er, contrasting approaches to Europe

Stryker convoy at the border of Lithuania and Poland, 26 Mar 2015. (Image: U.S. Army Europe via Facebook)

New post up at Liberty Unyielding.  Enjoy!

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Latest airliner loss for Malaysia: AirAsia flight QZ8501

Plenty of weather to go around on this one.

New post up at Liberty Unyielding.  Enjoy!

Chinese power move in South China Sea: This is big

Mariners and the specialty mariner press know it’s big.  But mariners can’t fix this.  It will take national policies to fix it, and non-specialist citizens therefore need to understand its importance.

So, I reiterate: this is big.  After several years of preparations for this day (see, for example, here, here, and here), China has issued a unilateral order that foreign fishing vessels will have to obtain permits from China to fish in two-thirds of the South China Sea (SCS), an area in which China has long made excessive territorial claims.

Britain taking lead on Syria?

One of these days, the mainstream media will catch up with reality and start reporting things as they are.  In the Libya intervention in 2011, the United States “led from behind” – France and Britain being the leaders out front – as a non-hostile kinetic military action sort of developed.  Reporters and pundits might have learned from that event that the capitals to watch are those of Europe.  They didn’t; but such appears to be the case again.

Britain, France

One watches Obama in vain.  But according to foreign media, if one is watching David Cameron, one is seeing things actually happen.

The year 2012

Readers, 2012 was a doozie for TOC.  There hasn’t been a year in my life when so many things came at me and my family so fast.  I’ll catch you up just a little bit, as I have been away from the blogs for several weeks, and I know some of you are concerned.

The onslaught began in February 2012,