@ggersh In the Army Times where we are not actually engaged.

Swear to god, if the Kremlin doesn't read Army Times, they're missing an incredible amount of free data.

I believe it's that we're actively prepping for a new war, that it is expected to be a foreign one with lots of PTSD sufferers, and nobody wants to take the blame for this shitstorm, so it's gonna be another LONG one.

@Pluto's Republic It does play to one of my strengths, which is my understanding of the Military culture.

Will consider it, I promise.

…and this is so true:

...a goldmine of data for any intelligence analyst. What is important is the underlying assumptions of common knowledge and the data that is given, assuming that such data is freely available.

I've thought about this a lot. You think, "Should I be given this information? Is this a mistake? Then it hits you that the people writing it are so deep in the culture, they can't imagine how little you know. While none of it is classified, they cannot conceive of how revealing it is to a clean mind.

This is all due to the heavy censorship that corporate media uses to protect the military industrial complex and their Wall Street collaborators. For a journalist, the whole spectrum falls under "forbidden topics." It's marginally okay to talk about military equipment being sold to foreign allies, because that's capitalism — even though the People will never see any ROI from the major money they put up for development costs. Those are transformed into profits for the Oligarchs and investors. On the other hand, it's not okay to write about the size and scope of the expanding war front, because all that money goes down a black hole, never to be seen again. The media seems to steers clear in general.

You should consider doing a regular column exploring the amazing insights you can find there.

@Pluto's Republic Than an ambitious officer that wants to look good to their superiors. In their reports and statements, you will see a LOT of info that shouldn't be shared, mostly to make themselves look good, but failing to realize what exactly that suggests.

Take my own Unit, 3d ACR (Which no longer exists under that designation) They proudly state that they did more combat patrols than any other unit in Iraq. What that leaves out is exactly how hard we were being pushed, our casualty rate, and how many we lost due to flat out breakdowns. As a result, any enemy who would have bothered to read our Colonel's reports to the public would have realized that we were spread dangerously thin, and that a quick concentrated push on one or two of our outposts would have resulted in massive casualties and catastrophic morale damage.

I'm just glad nobody on the other side thought like me. I brought this up to my Captain after the deployment in a private talk (Which we were NOT supposed to have, BTW, but fuck the regs on fraternization, he was a smart guy and we got along well) and he confided in me that he knew it and hated how often he'd have to nod his head at the strategy.

…and this is so true:

...a goldmine of data for any intelligence analyst. What is important is the underlying assumptions of common knowledge and the data that is given, assuming that such data is freely available.

I've thought about this a lot. You think, "Should I be given this information? Is this a mistake? Then it hits you that the people writing it are so deep in the culture, they can't imagine how little you know. While none of it is classified, they cannot conceive of how revealing it is to a clean mind.

This is all due to the heavy censorship that corporate media uses to protect the military industrial complex and their Wall Street collaborators. For a journalist, the whole spectrum falls under "forbidden topics." It's marginally okay to talk about military equipment being sold to foreign allies, because that's capitalism — even though the People will never see any ROI from the major money they put up for development costs. Those are transformed into profits for the Oligarchs and investors. On the other hand, it's not okay to write about the size and scope of the expanding war front, because all that money goes down a black hole, never to be seen again. The media seems to steers clear in general.

You should consider doing a regular column exploring the amazing insights you can find there.

@Steven D Of course, I promise to try to keep my analyses of things like this to direct 1st order conjecture. I won't speculate much farther than what is directly implied.

And yes, very scary, but I hope and pray I'm wrong. Nothing would bring me more pleasure than being completely wrong and humans are actually good. But It's not the safe way to bet, IMHO.

Damn scary times we live in.