Axe to Pick

Afternoon, Stroock's Books, and happy Bastille Day. Vive le France! Lafeyette, we are here!

We're having a scorcher today through Thursday. 

We approach the coming days with a sense of melancholy and angst [Again?-Ed]. 

Ynet does a deep dive on the Iranian nuclear facility within Pickaxe Mountain. It may be invulnerable to even the GBU-57 Bunker Buster which destroyed Fordow, they say. This blog submits that the Pentagon has been working on this problem for some time and probably has something even bigger designed specifically for Pickaxe Mountain. But we're an optimist by nature. Stroock's Books awaits events. 

Kyle Smith reviews Heartbreak Ridge on the film's 40th anniversary. Do click over and read. We found this especially interesting, 'What I did identify with was Heartbreak Ridge's depiction of garrison life—the hanging out part of the military career, the bit between wars, and consequently the vast majority of your life in uniform. The soldiers (in this case, the Marines) play tricks on each other, goof off, go on runs, do whatever their day-to-day assignments may be.'

Forget combat, maneuvers, waiting in Saudi Arabia etc etc. Garrison life was the hardest part of writing A Line through the Desert. We just couldn't quite wrap our head around what soldiers did all day in peacetime. Honestly, the answer seemed to be not quite as much as civilians do on a 9-5. And hanging around a barracks at night was pretty much like dorm life in college. 

DOGE report.

We edited the hippie commune story. It moves fast, perhaps too fast. But it works.

We worked on the Dublin airport operation. It'll work, eventually. More Bofors 4mms, more crashing Chinooks.