2012/10/27

The four real topics on Defence and Freedom

.
I gave it away in an e-mail, so can just as well share them openly: My evil, secret agenda. Yes, the header is but a disguise:
 
This is blog about the defence against external threats and about the defence of civil liberties. Most topics are about the art of war, military history or military technology.

Well, this is what the blog is REALLY about:

(1)
Promote peace.
War is extremely wasteful, as is excess preparation for it. There are many milbloggers ready to go into warmonger mode at the moment some political operatives make warmongering the topic of the day (and attempt to keep it that way as long as necessary for preparing some stupid war). MilPub, Ranger against War and Defence and Freedom are the only decidedly pro-peace MilBlogs known to me. More counterweight to all the idiots who push for crappy wars and bullying of sovereign nations is needed among Milblogs.

(2)
Fight against the encroaching of authoritarian features in Western societies, especially Germany.
We don't need the spying, databases, censorship attempts and all the other crap that popped up with the AQ hysteria. Authoritarians in both left and right wing, in bureaucracies and political parties have wanted this nonsense for a long time, and AQ is but their excuse. Previously, they were all excited about the dangers of organised crime, and since a few years, supposedly oh-so scary errorists have been partially replaced by paedophiles as bogeymen. These authoritarians will always build up some supposedly scary bogeyman to push their agenda, and that agenda is dangerous to our freedom.
We should not be content with stopping these authoritarians who see us as masses to be observed and controlled - we need to roll back their crap or else they will win in the long term, salami slice for salami slice. 

(3) 
Warn about mediocrity and complacency, an unsatisfactory state of affairs in regard to Western military forces armed bureaucracies.
We should be fit for a two-year arms race towards fitness for a great war; a war between great powers. I don't care much about small wars. Small wars are about opponents who are no real threat to us unless we go to their place.
My concern is that the current situation is much too similar to the pre-1912 situation for being comfortable. The Western military forces saw several small wars, but almost no great wars for a long time. Attempts to address the changes in the world with military theory updates are unconvincing to me. The dominant course appears to be but a military theory fig leaf for the expensive gadgets the industry wants to sell the taxpayer. Search for a really high-tech independent advance in military theory and you'll see what I think of. There should be non-high-tech solutions to challenges brought largely by technological advances, but they're rare, for the arms industry cannot make a big buck with them.

(4)
Share interesting or amusing stuff
I do this because I want to - I love humorous stuff and feel that it should be almost everywhere. Thus I plant a lot in here as well.

Writing of it...:


Now it's out. These four points are my 'hidden' agenda.
I want to turn you into a laughing dove concerned about military theory and domestic authoritarians.
Like me.

S O (e-mail contact)
.

8 comments:

  1. FWIW, apart from the blogroll found on "milpub", I'd maybe add "On Violence"; not strictly speaking a pro-peace blog but certainly not a warmongering blog neither, though with a focus more on the ethical side.
    In any case, your own effort here are appreciated, again, I don't have the requiered baggage to really "gauge" your output, but from a neophyte's pov, it for sure pass the "common sense" and "breath of fresh air" tests. I really have nothing to add nor substract from your hidden agenda, just keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. Pen and Sword would certainly qualify, but it has been dormant since January.

      Delete
  2. "Travels with Shiloh" is very enjoyable as well. Probably not quite the same tone as here and on Milpub, but with a mature and critical look at military and domestic security/liberties (great humour too).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Sven please notice that Jeff Huber (Pen and Sword) already died on January 25, 2012.


    http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2012/03/12/remembering-jeff-huber/

    Best regards, silent reader

    ReplyDelete
  4. Those are four good reasons to have a blog.

    I'm in Canada now and find your central European views on civil liberty issues interesting to compare to this country: there's a parallel. Without going into details, I'd say Germany is doing better.

    ReplyDelete
  5. 'Fight against the encroaching of authoritarian features in Western societies, especially Germany.'

    Well said, sven. With the current generation of thinkers such as yourself, germany is on the right footing to avoid repeating the mistakes of the 30s. Their greatest weakness as a nation has always been the peoples unthinking respect for authority!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, psychological research shows that this is a human trait. The problems were more complex.

      Delete