Thursday Through

No gym yesterday. We figured three days in a row was enough and we were sore from lifting anyway. So with the weather being 50+ and sunny we had a cigar and Cavaliere D'oro instead. In truth it was too soon since the last. 

Dang, the Marines raised the Stars and Stripes over Hue and I can't find footage of it. Yes we're reading about Tet. When we finish that book we may read Mark Bowdin's book about Hue. We'll have to decide if we want that much detail. In the meantime we've started Lewis Sorely's A Better War, about Creighton Abrams in Vietnam. Dereliction of Duty is proving to be a hard slog. Lot's of descriptions of paperwork. We may put it down permanently.

So it looks like the oil spill off the Israeli coast was intentional. Over to you, Bibi. What you gonna do about it? This blog suggests destroying the Iranian nuclear reactor at Bushehr. The spill is a really great tactic, actually. The event has triggered us and we spent some time yesterday doing some idea building and character development for Israel Strikes: War with the Turks. Nothing is set, but things are moving in that direction for the summer. If we're gonna do this, the novel needs to be set. Plot outlined and characters ready. We're talking 1,000-1,5000 words a day.

Our latest piece at Substack is out: Three Wars with Pakistan: 'Before the Second World War, the Indian Army numbered 82 independent battalions. When the Japanese attacked Burma these were hastily organized into higher echelon formations, brigades, and divisions. The typical brigade contained two Indian battalions and one British. Most of the armored and artillery battalions were British as well. Despite the colonial nature of the Indian army, thousands of native soldiers rose through the ranks, becoming officers, many battalions were in fact commanded by Indians. By the end of the war, there were two and half million men under arms organized into 16 divisions each of three brigades. Indian divisions fought with great distinction in North Africa, East Africa, Italy and the Far East...' Click on over for subcontinental action.

More good work on The Great Salvation of 1976. So long as we don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, we're in really good shape. We need to drop Anne Rockefeller in there more. The president's only surviving child, she's the de-facto first lady. Right now the side story is Ulan Ude. Why? well, we've fallen in love with the travel vloggers Kara and Nate, and they went there.* We'll see. We don't think our Westmoreland story in Korea will work. We're still thinking about putting off publishing the nuke books till next year and focusing on The Final Storm and Israel Strikes for this year.

*My word, Kara is just adorable. A enchanting vision. We cannot look away. That smile. One of those Millennial girls who wears tights all the time. We sigh.