Armed forces

Crazy for “Palestine”

Featured image Thich Quang Duc was the Buddhist monk who self-immolated to protest the Diem regime during South Vietnam’s so-called Buddhist crisis of 1963. The AP’s Malcolm Browne won the World Press Photo of the Year in 1963 with the famous photograph of Duc on fire. Ray Boomhower’s forthcoming book about it is titled The Ultimate Protest. Air Force senior airman Aaron Bushnell replayed the scene outside the Israeli embassy in Washington »

Thought for the day

Featured image Steve Cohen is an author, attorney, former publisher, and former member of the board of the U.S. Naval Institute. In the City Journal column “The few, the fat, the fatigued,” he addresses the recruiting shortfalls of the military branches other then the Marines: “Last year, the Army missed its recruiting goal by 25 percent—some 15,000 soldiers short of its target. This year’s numbers may be worse. Other branches of the »

D-Day at 78

Featured image My college classmate John Floberg recently retired after a distinguished career in neurology. We took Professor Peter Bien’s freshman seminar on Politics and the Novel together during our first term. John is originally from Chicago but we reconnected in the Twin Cities through Power Line 40 years after our studies with Professor Bien. Following in a family tradition, John served as a commissioned Navy officer after our graduation. In 2016 »

We are not a serious country (5)

Featured image The Washington Free Beacon’s Adam Kredo reports: “As Russia Wages War, US Army Trains Officers on Gender Identity.” Subhead: “Mandatory military training program pushes soldiers to undergo gender reassignment surgery.” Kredo’s story opens: While Russia wages a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Army is putting its soldiers through training on gender pronouns and coaching officers on when to offer soldiers gender transition surgery, according to an official military presentation »

Why Did Putin Invade?

Featured image I guessed wrong on this one. I thought Putin would bluff and bluster, and then cash in his chips. I thought the weak Western powers would agree to a partition of Ukraine, with the largely Russian-speaking Eastern provinces going to Russia, along with other considerations, unrelated to Ukraine, that would be more or less secret. But Putin invaded instead, and seems bent on conquering all of Ukraine and perhaps more »

Thoughts from the ammo line

Featured image What Ammo Grrrll sees is NOT YOUR DADDY’S MILITARY (OR YOUR MOTHER’S EITHER). She writes: A couple of weeks ago, I saw a link to an invidious comparison between the military recruitment videos for North Korea, China, Russia – and the United States. Now I have seen many pretty effective U.S. recruitment videos or billboards in the past, particularly for the United States Marine Corps. “The Few. The Proud. The »

Admiral Gilday, meet Ty Smith

Featured image Has the United States Navy joined the institutions pushing Critical Race Theory? Rep. Doug Lamborn had a hard time getting a straight answer from Admiral Michael Gilday in a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee last week (video below). The New York Post covered Gilday’s testimony, such as it was, here. Gilday is chief of naval operations, but he doesn’t know what he is talking about, or around, or »

D-Day at 77

Featured image My Dartmouth classmate John Floberg recently retired after a distinguished career in neurology. We took Professor Peter Bien’s freshman seminar on Politics and the Novel together during our first term at the college. John is originally from Chicago but we reconnected in the Twin Cities through Power Line 40 years after our studies with Professor Bien. Following in a family tradition, John served as a commissioned Navy officer after our »

“We are all Jews here”

Featured image Last week Tablet published Professor Patrick Henry’s remembrance of Roddie Edmonds, the former Army master sergeant who saved the Jews in his ranks from plans the Nazis had in store for them as prisoners of war. Professor Henry takes the title of his column from Edmonds’s memorable assertion to the unhappy Nazi commandant of the prison camp: “We are all Jews here.” It is a moving and inspirational story. In »

America’s honor

Featured image In observance of Memorial Day 2007 the Wall Street Journal published a brilliant column by the late Peter Collier to mark the occasion. The column remains timely and is accessible online here. I don’t think we’ll read or hear anything more thoughtful or appropriate to the occasion today. With the kind permission of Peter himself, here it is: Once we knew who and what to honor on Memorial Day: those »

America’s honor

Featured image In observance of Memorial Day 2007 the Wall Street Journal published a brilliant column by the late Peter Collier to mark the occasion. The column remains timely and is accessible online here. I don’t think we’ll read or hear anything more thoughtful or appropriate to the occasion today. With the kind permission of Peter himself, here it is: Once we knew who and what to honor on Memorial Day: those »

Thread: A Story That Makes You Proud to Be an American

Featured image While we await the start of today’s conference championship games, I came across a story from a few months back that just makes you want to stand up and salute our armed forces even more than usual: US troops drink Iceland capital’s entire beer supply in one weekend More than 6,000 soldiers were in Reykjavik for four days participating in the Trident Juncture 18 – a NATO-led military exercise. After their drills, the »

Report: Killin’ caliph down

Featured image The AP reports at the top of its long story: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the shadowy leader of the Islamic State group who presided over its global jihad and became arguably the world’s most wanted man, is believed dead after being targeted by a U.S. military raid in Syria. A U.S. official told The Associated Press late Saturday that al-Baghdadi was targeted in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province. The official said confirmation »

Tom Cotton’s sacred duty

Featured image In his excellent review of Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington National Cemetery, by Senator Tom Cotton, Scott Johnson criticized himself for not asking Tom about his service in the Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetery when the two met in New York City years ago. Scott says he now “feels like a fool” for not having asked questions that would have elicited some of the information contained in »

America’s honor

Featured image In observance of Memorial Day 2007 the Wall Street Journal published a brilliant column by Peter Collier to mark the occasion. The column remains timely and is accessible online here. I don’t think we’ll read or hear anything more thoughtful or appropriate to the occasion today. With the kind permission of Peter himself, here it is: Once we knew who and what to honor on Memorial Day: those who had »

Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington

Featured image Today is the official publication date of Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington National Cemetery, by Senator Tom Cotton. It is now available in bookstores and on Amazon. Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews have already posted laudatory reviews. I cannot recommend the book highly enough to Power Line readers and want only to add this personal note. I first met Tom (as I will refer to him here) face »

At the Naval Academy commencement

Featured image Paul Mirengoff observed the most notable elements of President Trump’s appearance at the Naval Academy commencement ceremony last week. Trump gave an inspirational commencement speech. That was one such element. The speech was interrupted by applause; it was uninterrupted by protest. That’s another such element (or two). The New York Times covered Trump’s commencement speech in a hilariously grudging account. The Times also purported to find three false claims in »