Boycotting H-E-B…
In Texas…
Sure.

Some Texans may hate woke, but they love fresh tortillas more.

The Iran War Is Not a Just War Operation Epic Fury fails almost all the tests of righteous warfare.

"An administration that is so obsessed with what it considers the protection of Western civilization should pay some attention to the just war theory that has become a key accomplishment of that civilization."

SUPER excited about these new MWG opportunities! Took a ton of work and years to get it off the ground. Highly recommend MWG members apply for these fully funded writing retreat opportunities!

Tactical Success, Strategic Failure? Washington Walks the Path to Defeat in Iran Six weeks after the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran, what was the political object? Not the military means and objectives — those are

“A successful outcome on the battlefield is not the purpose of the war itself. Operations on the battlefield, however brilliantly performed, are without practical value if they do not contribute to achieving a worthy political objective.” @warontherocks.bsky.social
warontherocks.com/tactical-suc...

I was given a hard copy certificate and full medal set for an AAM two weeks ago. (Happy to donate the medal set; totally didn’t need that)

Civil-Military Relations in the Prevention of Democratic Backsliding Christoph Harig Abstract Most civil-military relations scholarship implicitly or explicitly sees the military as a threat to democratic institutions and governments. In recent years, however, there have been several instances in which democratically elected governments tried to use the armed forces for undermining democratic institutions. Hence, military leaders may sometimes have to contest lawful political decisions if these potentially threaten democracy. This challenges fundamental normative assumptions in civil-military relations research. The present article therefore asks: Which analytical tools does civil-military relations scholarship provide for assessing the appropriate role of military leaders in the prevention of democratic backsliding? Should there be general, prescriptive normative theories for military leaders’ appropriate behaviour in contexts of democratic backsliding? The article begins by reviewing civil-military relations scholarship’s perspectives on the appropriate political role of armed forces and discusses how these are challenged by democratic backsliding. Building on previous attempts to conceptualise military dissent and the military’s role in autocratization processes, the article argues that military behaviour in backsliding processes cannot be assessed without taking military role conceptions as explanatory variable for military leaders’ ideas about appropriate behaviour into account. Illustrative examples from the Americas then assess military leaders’ reaction to backsliding attempts and their consequences for democracy and civil-military relations. The findings underline that prescriptive guidance for military disobedience should be treated with caution.

Can civil-military relations scholarship provide prescriptive normative guidance for military leaders' appropriate behaviour in democratic backsliding?

My new article in @journalofgss.bsky.social debates this civil-military conundrum

academic.oup.com/jogss/articl... #CivMilSKy

Illiberalism Is Not Inevitable If Viktor Orbán can lose, then his Russian and American admirers can lose too.

Illiberalism is not Inevitable

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

"most wars demonstrate the limits of military power, especially when unsupported by a realistic political strategy.” @ldfreedman.bsky.social

Wars assume lives of their own, initiated for one reason, continued for others, concluded for yet another.

Afghanistan was this way.

So is America’s war of choice in Iran.

Begun over uranium enrichment & missiles; fought for control of the Strait of Hormuz; why or how it ends is anyone’s guess.

Many people from Texas argue that Austin isn’t Texas. It’s a little weird here (thankfully). Outside Austin, I’d agree, Shiner or Lone Star with tequila.

Living in Austin, TX, my guess would be an Electric Jellyfish IPA (Pinthouse Brewing) + Vodka (either “Tito’s” for most popular or “Deep Eddy” for most local).

No wars occurs in isolation. Deep historical experiences and dynamic societies exist on all sides of conflict that shape how we got here and influence the way forward. Strategic empathy isn’t about feeling bad for the adversary, it’s about understanding how past experiences affect future outcomes.

Ok on a serious note, it cannot be exaggerated how bad formalized Iranian control of the Strait is for the world. The entire global economy rests on an American guarantee of free commercial shipping. That guarantee is gone. We don’t know exactly what will happen but none of it will be good.

a man in a brown coat says you gotta pay the troll toll ALT: a man in a brown coat says you gotta pay the troll toll

Freedom of Navigation isn’t free…

Engaging not to be a hater, but because this is quality discourse to platform:

That said, as a German historian, I don’t think there’s any way you can argue that conservativism and fascism are ideologically the same.

Thread 🧵

Did Trump Just Threaten to Use Nuclear Weapons in Iran? If such an order comes to pass, the military can and must refuse.

If Trump does give an order to attack civilian targets that have no military value as a means of collectively punishing the Iranian people - and make good his threat to begin a genocide - Marco Rubio should resign and the military must refuse the order.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Good thread. The difficulty in ending the war (considering Israeli involvement) is something we see in Clausewitz’s conception of the center of gravity in a coalition: if two states attacking a third have independent means and motives, you have two wars 🧵

open.substack.com/pub/deadcarl...

War Crimes Rhetoric to Battlefield Reality: Slippery Slope to Total War on Iran Former JAGs warn that threats to strike Iran’s power plants would violate the law of war and endanger U.S. service members’ legal and moral obligations.

Highly recommend to any journalist covering U.S. strikes in Iran this @justsecurity.org explainer by Margaret Donovan & Rachel VanLandingham www.justsecurity.org/135797/war-c...

Professional Disobedience: Loyalty and the Military To be a professional member of the military means to be obedient; to be disobedient is, therefore, unprofessional. However, the Nuremberg trials and events of My Lai demonstrate the concept of obedien...

thestrategybridge.org/the-bridge/2...

#OnObedience #DisciplinedDisobedience

It’s far more complicated than “support the Troops”.

Curiously, I hear nothing from the "Ukraine is destroying our ability to defend Taiwan" crowd these days.

Founding treaty Founding treaty

Happy NATO founding day to all who celebrate! If you think the alliance isn’t worthwhile, know that everything the U.S. tries to do in the world will be harder and more expensive without allied help. Trade them for better allies if you can find any. I can’t.

I am seeing stuff in the TL that makes me feel a need to say something.

I know every time the US goes to war, people respond with this rather bifurcated Support The Troops vs Eww Troops Do War Things.

So to be clear, people serve for various reasons but nobody wants to be involved in war crimes.

In my last job I read every firearm CCIR in the total Army (active, NG, Reserves).
Every. Day.
Suicide, malfeasance, domestic violence, and accidents are done with private firearms.
By a ratio of more than 10:1. 1/4

The last 24 hours have raised questions and attention about the Secretary of Defense's role in General Officer promotions.

Sat in the room with a GO as we met regularly with an Iraqi counterpart he knew had planted Iranian EFPs that killed his Soldiers years before.

We talked about it after. He hated it, but knew we had to work with the counterpart now. Can’t take this business personal.

Emotion undermines strategy.

"The question he asked was whether political leaders could ever build in the discipline of thinking about termination before they committed their forces.” Smart piece from @ghoshworld.bsky.social

As someone who studies politicization of democratic militaries this statement on X is a five- alarm fire. It creates an undeniable permission structure for overt partisan behavior by mil. It's part of a concerted effort by civilian leaders to turn the U.S. military into a partisan aligned force.