Tags: Links, travel, europe
Notes on travel to the Baltics.
I find the best maps and guides are often free. In this part of the world,
the In Your Pocket guidebooks exemplified this.
http://www.inyourpocket.com/
They are miniature guidebooks centered on the major cities like Riga and
Tallinn.
Monday, November 18, 2013
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
PTSD
Tags: history, war, Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, news, links
Yeah. And we're going to have vets from Iraq and Afghanistan coming out of
the woodwork with PTSD for the rest of our lives.
~~~
Stress hits some vets late in life
Life changes have Vietnam veterans in their 60s seeking treatment for
nightmares, flashbacks
By Colleen Mastony, Chicago Tribune reporter
November 11, 2013
Nearly four decades have passed since the end of the Vietnam War. Bill
Simon, a 65-year-old combat veteran, thought he had had long ago escaped the
nightmares and flashbacks that haunted him after his return home.
"For many years, I never had any issues," he said. He had all the trappings
of a successful life: a loving wife, three children and a house in Arlington
Heights. But about 10 years ago, the nightmares returned. Night after night,
they became more vivid and more bizarre.
"Regardless of whatever I start dreaming about, the dream always mutates
into some Vietnam incident," said Simon, a research specialist at a
petrochemical company. "They've gotten progressively worse. Right now, I
barely sleep."
Simon doesn't know what triggered the return of his nightmares. But experts
say his experience is not uncommon. As Vietnam veterans age, many discover
they have more time to contemplate their lives. The time for reflection - as
well as retirement, reunions with war buddies and the deaths of loved ones -
can stir memories from a long-ago war.
~~~
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-late-onset-ptsd-2-20131111,0
,2912353.story
Yeah. And we're going to have vets from Iraq and Afghanistan coming out of
the woodwork with PTSD for the rest of our lives.
~~~
Stress hits some vets late in life
Life changes have Vietnam veterans in their 60s seeking treatment for
nightmares, flashbacks
By Colleen Mastony, Chicago Tribune reporter
November 11, 2013
Nearly four decades have passed since the end of the Vietnam War. Bill
Simon, a 65-year-old combat veteran, thought he had had long ago escaped the
nightmares and flashbacks that haunted him after his return home.
"For many years, I never had any issues," he said. He had all the trappings
of a successful life: a loving wife, three children and a house in Arlington
Heights. But about 10 years ago, the nightmares returned. Night after night,
they became more vivid and more bizarre.
"Regardless of whatever I start dreaming about, the dream always mutates
into some Vietnam incident," said Simon, a research specialist at a
petrochemical company. "They've gotten progressively worse. Right now, I
barely sleep."
Simon doesn't know what triggered the return of his nightmares. But experts
say his experience is not uncommon. As Vietnam veterans age, many discover
they have more time to contemplate their lives. The time for reflection - as
well as retirement, reunions with war buddies and the deaths of loved ones -
can stir memories from a long-ago war.
~~~
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-late-onset-ptsd-2-20131111,0
,2912353.story
Saturday, November 9, 2013
American Way of War
A short excerpt from Colin Gray's essay, The American Way of War. From Rethinking the Principles of War, Chapter One, 2005. Published by the Naval Institute Press.
Full doc linked below.
~~~
The American Way of War: Critique and Implications, by Colin S. Gray
In the history of American strategy, the direction taken by the American
conception of war made most American strategists, through most of the
time span of American history, strategists of annihilation. At the
beginning, when American military resources were still slight, America
made a promising beginning in the nurture of strategists of attrition; but
the wealth of the country and its adoption of unlimited aims in war cut
that development short, until the strategy of annihilation became
characteristically the American way in war.1
What is the Question?
As excerpted above, Russell F. Weigley’s now-classic study, with its bold,
assertive title The American Way of War, comprises an invaluable extended
statement about American strategic and military culture. But, much has
happened since Weigley wrote the words quoted above in the dying phase of
America’s protracted and ultimately futile adventure in Vietnam. All too
plainly, the characteristically American way failed to deliver strategic and
political success in Southeast Asia. Was that undeniable fact a result of
endemic and enduring weakness in the American way of war; did it just
reflect the country’s way of war, its national style in warfare, at a particular
time; or did the American way attempt mission impossible in Vietnam? How
dynamic is the American way of war? Does it evolve to such a degree that it
is far from fixed by allegedly deep-rooted cultural influences? To press
skepticism further, is it even sensible to talk of the American way of war?
That it is a familiar concept and that Professor Weigley wrote a well-regarded
book about it certainly confer some legitimacy to the idea. Nonetheless,
many an unsound idea has survived because of the familiarity granted by
repetition, because of the blessings of ill-applied scholarship, and sometimes
because of official adoption.
~~~
The 12 characteristics:
1. Apolitical
2. Astrategic
3. Ahistorical
4. Problem-solving, optimistic
5. Culturally ignorant
6. Technologically dependent
7. Firepower focused
8. Large-scale
9. Profoundly regular
10. Impatient
11. Logistically excellent
12. Sensitive to casualties
~~~
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ohsbaslcklumvxu/2010-Colin%20Gray_American%20Way%20of%20War-writings--.pdf
Full doc linked below.
~~~
The American Way of War: Critique and Implications, by Colin S. Gray
In the history of American strategy, the direction taken by the American
conception of war made most American strategists, through most of the
time span of American history, strategists of annihilation. At the
beginning, when American military resources were still slight, America
made a promising beginning in the nurture of strategists of attrition; but
the wealth of the country and its adoption of unlimited aims in war cut
that development short, until the strategy of annihilation became
characteristically the American way in war.1
What is the Question?
As excerpted above, Russell F. Weigley’s now-classic study, with its bold,
assertive title The American Way of War, comprises an invaluable extended
statement about American strategic and military culture. But, much has
happened since Weigley wrote the words quoted above in the dying phase of
America’s protracted and ultimately futile adventure in Vietnam. All too
plainly, the characteristically American way failed to deliver strategic and
political success in Southeast Asia. Was that undeniable fact a result of
endemic and enduring weakness in the American way of war; did it just
reflect the country’s way of war, its national style in warfare, at a particular
time; or did the American way attempt mission impossible in Vietnam? How
dynamic is the American way of war? Does it evolve to such a degree that it
is far from fixed by allegedly deep-rooted cultural influences? To press
skepticism further, is it even sensible to talk of the American way of war?
That it is a familiar concept and that Professor Weigley wrote a well-regarded
book about it certainly confer some legitimacy to the idea. Nonetheless,
many an unsound idea has survived because of the familiarity granted by
repetition, because of the blessings of ill-applied scholarship, and sometimes
because of official adoption.
~~~
The 12 characteristics:
1. Apolitical
2. Astrategic
3. Ahistorical
4. Problem-solving, optimistic
5. Culturally ignorant
6. Technologically dependent
7. Firepower focused
8. Large-scale
9. Profoundly regular
10. Impatient
11. Logistically excellent
12. Sensitive to casualties
~~~
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ohsbaslcklumvxu/2010-Colin%20Gray_American%20Way%20of%20War-writings--.pdf
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