A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Reaper (the drone formerly known as Predator). Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons Someone on Quora asks:  Would drone strikes on their cyber war facilities be an appropriate response to the Russian attacks on our election? No. Sending armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) over Russian territory and firing, say, Hellfire missiles at the Internet Research Agency’s headquarters in St. Petersburg (the former Leningrad) would be, don’t you know, an act of war. Seriously, dude. What  are  you thinking? Okay, let’s say that a future President (not Donald Trump or Mike Pence) decides that the proper response to Russia’s interference in our elections is what amounts to a conventional air strike, albeit using drones. First, let’s look at the graphics of this. Imagine, if you will, Russia’s state-controlled media beaming pictures of the burning IRA building wherever it may be in St. Petersburg. Chances are that the drone strike would be a “no warning” strike (be...

If you are old enough to remember the earthshaking events that took place between June 1989 (the Tianamen Square massacre in Beijing) and December 25, 1991 (Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's announcement that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics would cease to exist six days later as a political entity), you probably recall feeling a sense of relief and exultation.  After all, unless you were a die-hard Marxist who believed that Communism was the solution to humanity's problems - never mind that it is one of the most oppressive and tyrannical forms of governance - there was plenty to celebrate, especially once the red and gold banner with the hammer and sickle was lowered from the Kremlin's Spasky Tower for the last time. The Cold War between the Russian-led Warsaw Pact and the U.S.-led free world was over. There was no need for an expensive and never-ending arms race. Countries such as Cuba, North Korea, and all of the former Soviet satellites in Easte...

(C) 1994 Warner Books The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was a blessing in disguise not only for the Pentagon but for writers of military fiction. Just as the armed services have had to develop new doctrines, strategies, tactics, and weapons systems to contend with new enemies (potential and real), authors such as Tom Clancy, Stephen Coonts, Harold Coyle, and Larry Bond have had to look at the world situation, read the proverbial "tea leaves," and write plausible scenarios pitting American soldiers against foes that are very different from the by-now all-too-familiar Soviet "Ivan." The writing team of Bond and Patrick Larkin ( Red Phoenix, Vortex ) was one of the earliest practitioners of "the-Cold-War-is-ending, let's-look-at-other-story-possibilities" idea. Although the Soviet Union was still in existence when their first two novels were published in the early 1990s, its role in Red Phoenix (about a second ...

Well, we're 41 days into President Donald J. Trump's four-year term, but his popularity is not improving despite the best efforts of his minders to make him look like he is accomplishing important things in Washington - and his Florida digs at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach county. Despite Tuesday night's Presidential address before Congress in which Mr. Trump at least acted a bit more....presidential, his approval ratings are still below 45%. According to a Gallup poll published today, only 43% of Americans approve of the way that President Trump is doing his job. That's a 1% improvement over the last Gallup poll we mentioned here, but not by much. Why? First, the 45th President of the United States has a big problem with truthfulness - he lacks honesty. In his first address before both houses of Congress, Mr. Trump gave his listeners a bravura performance that, as the Washington Post noted,  was full of "numerous inaccuracies." Remember his election p...

Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States, has been in the White House for less than a month. In that short period of time, he has become the least popular Chief Executive in American history, thanks to his abrasive, take-no-crap-from-anyone demeanor, his penchant for divisiveness and "rule by fear," and just plain dishonesty. As a result of such unpopular decisions as banning people from seven Muslim countries from entering the U.S. with visas, insisting on building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border (and saying that Mexico will pay for it), waging a vigorous war against the press, and dissembling about why former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was asked to resign over Flynn's pre-inauguration conversation with Russia's ambassador about the possible easing of sanctions, Mr. Trump's popularity continues to spiral downward. Per the latest Gallup poll (February 17, 2017), the President's popularity hit a historically low po...