Angry Staff Officer

The books exist, but those books are read by few outside military leadership. The good ones come from leaders who have been there, and they skip over the basics. Being able to talk to a chatbot that can get people past the classic military mistakes could make a force far more effective. Maybe. It's not going to create a Giap or a Rommel, but it might keep a force from repeating classic military mistakes. There's a brutal little book, "The Defense of Duffer's Drift".[1] It's about classic small-unit mistakes, written from the point of view of someone who has to dream about the same battle over and over. Each time, his plan seems reasonable. But he loses and gets killed. He finally gets it right, after quite a few tries. It's to hammer home the message that there are many ways to screw up an operation. If you don't know the classic mistakes, you're going to make them. A more modern critic is The Angry Staff Officer. This is a currently serving US Army officer who writes, with a biting wit, about tactics, both real and fictional.[2] He's a good read. The classics for revolutionaries/terrorists are, of course, Mao and Marighella. Mao is philosophical. Marighella is nuts and bolts. [1] https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24842 [2] https://angrystaffofficer.com/

Actual military officer (at the time of writing) doesn't thing much of "warrior mindset" even _in the army_: https://angrystaffofficer.com/2016/12/14/stop-calling-us-warriors/ Worth reading together with the OP article.

Thanks for that recommendation. Though on a different topic, I found the following post particularly interesting: "Failure Mechanisms in Democratic Regimes – an Army’s Role" https://angrystaffofficer.com/2025/03/02/failure-mechanisms-in-democra… I submitted it now for discussion on its own: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44084653

For many more variations on Star Wars in terms of the modern military, check out Angry Staff Officer's posts: https://angrystaffofficer.com/category/star-wars/ One of my favorites is "Skywalker on Trial": https://angrystaffofficer.com/2016/07/11/skywalker-on-trial-the-galact…

Angry Staff Officer has written about LotR a bit: https://angrystaffofficer.com/2019/10/20/warfighter-helms-deep/

Apologies, I had conflated the flying of Confederate streamers formerly with the US Army and Navy[1] and later (and still currently) with various state national guards[2]. Also a decent blog post on the topic: https://angrystaffofficer.com/2018/02/13/a-murky-heritage-the-u-s-army… [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_War_Campaign_Medal [2] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321951579_Confederate_Service…

I came across this somewhere (probably here) recently. https://angrystaffofficer.com/2016/07/01/anatomy-of-a-world-war-i-arti…

> If you believe this, does the 2A give people individual rights to own tanks, missiles, nukes, chemical weapons? This question seems loaded, especially after how you started it with "if you believe this" when I already stated the foundational belief I have, but I'll take your question in good faith. Citizens can already own rockets and missiles? Yes, they can, which is why there's private space companies. That has very little to do with 2A. As far as I'm aware an FFL (Federal Firearms License) would not give you access to chemical weapons. It's also not that hard for citizens to produce chemical weapons with household cleaners, but that also is beside the point. 2A, and pretty much anything below an FFL, is mainly the subject of my discussion. With an FFL a citizen can purchase pretty much any weapon, including a tank, or explosive. > Where are the limits in the constitution on the types of arms a person can own? Various states have attempted to circumvent the federal governments monopoly on this law, but I guess you could start to form some specific criteria by looking here: https://www.atf.gov/firearms/apply-license You'd have to cross these with state laws; some are very permissive, others not. > This is especially relevant if the goal of the 2S is to be able to stand up to the US armed forces. I mean, it's not that hard. The Taliban did it and they mostly had assault rifles, REX, grenades, and rockets (the anti-tank kind, not the artillery kind). I'll also…

[0] Tell Me Something I Don't Know - Trivia show with a twist, hosted by Steven Dubner of Freakonomics fame. [1] How I built this - Interviews successful entrepreneurs on their background, motivations, challenges etc. in building their businesses. [2] Revolutions - Podcast on some of the biggest political revolutions in history. I am going through season 2 (American Revolution against the British Empire). [3] War Stories - "Traces the evolution of warfare through the eyes who lived it". Season 1 focused on armoured warfare (a.k.a. Tanks). Waiting on Season 2. [4] Science Vs - Researches the fads/opinions (organic food, meditation, ghosts etc.) to figure out if they are based on science. [0] http://tmsidk.com/ [1] http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this [2] http://www.revolutionspodcast.com/ [3] https://angrystaffofficer.com/war-stories-podcast/ [4] https://gimletmedia.com/science-vs/