What's A-NatO?

A fine Thursday morn to Stroock's Books reader(s) everywhere but Europe, and Canada, California, Massachusetts....The list goes on.  

So we got into it a bit with a lefty on Substack yesterday. Which is sometimes amusing but usually dumb. In truth we kind of started it [Kind of?-Ed]. We like to search Gaza on Substack notes, repost some sob story of Dickensian suffering with the comment, 'Hamas chose war', which it did. 

Also, this person was a lefty, which after several months of Tucker jack off effluvia from rightwing randos, was almost refreshing. It's been a while since anyone has called us a homophobe. All we did was say this bro was gay and retarded, which is our wont. 

He replied, 'You're an idiot,' to which we responded, 'I am a man of letters, sir!' [Oh look at you...Ed].

Moving on....This blog believes all the people saying Trump is reordering global trade in America's favor, winning the Iran war, and generally playing 4D chess, are making great points. See John Sexson at Hot Air for instance. Or David Strom, also at Hot Air. We even think they're right. Naysaying and nitpicking is far too easy. But this blog remains cautious, weary even. What are the unknown unknowns? And above all, events...events. 

Pointless nostalgia....last weekend we cleaned up the front yard while listening to Queen's A Night at the Opera. ANatO is one of our favorite albums, an album we'd take with us to a desert island, as DJs used to say*. We put on ANatO on purpose. For 20 years ago we listened to ANatO while cleaning up the yard, on the recommendation of one of our high school students, a nice young man whom we know has done well for himself. Aside from Bohemian Rhapsody, we'd never heard  anything on ANatO. The album is a tour de force. There just ain't anuthin' else like it.  Anywho...we enjoyed the generational synergy. 

Hey, look at that. We spelled A-NATO. Yes, NATO is useless. Worse than useless, really. The Euros are aiding and abetting Iran. 

Related....yeah we didn't really think the new guy in Hungary would be as bad as a lot of the right feared. Hot Air [Again?-Ed] reports Magyar will keep Orban's immigration policies and has invited Netanyahu to visit. Hey, Orban was in office for 16 years. Sooner or later a leader must step down or get thrown out. And so he was. Magyar is who the people of Hungary chose. Bibi may well be next. We'll see. 

Classic Post: I got polled!

DOGE Report.

We had a decent day writing two scenes in World War 1990: The Managua Campaign. The battle of Neuva Segovia is coming along and soon FDN forces will threatened the flank of the Sandinista northwestern zone. 

Also, we shifted focus in The Fourth Day. We still don't know how we're wrapping up the Soviet cosmonaut story. But we figured out how we're ending the Kenny and Aoife story. So we got to work on that. Do Kenny and Aoife run into a downed Soviet pilot, or a downed British pilot? The latter certainly has comedic potential. In any event, we plan on finishing this story today [Do you, now?-Ed].

We are matriculating those plot lines. 

*That is, were we stuck on a desert island, what album would we want with us? 

Will is Revolutionary

Good morning, Stroock's Books faithful.

Temps topped 85 yesterday and should hit 90 today. The new AC worked swimmingly and even went on temperature and shut down for brief periods. 

Happy Operation El Dorado Canyon Day to all those who celebrate. 

Those of a certain age will recall what a nuisance Momar Qadhafi made of himself in the 80s. Wild maritime claims, aerial skirmishes, and even a fairly serious battle with the USN in the Gulf of Sidra. By the spring of 1986, President Reagan had had enough and tried to take him out.

 Ah...40 years on now. Where does the time go? Qadhafi directly inspired the 80s action movie Iron Eagle. A fantasy, Iron Eagle is a bit of well executed and fun 80s cheese. Sometimes you just gotta pop that Spencer Davis Group cassette into the player and kick some ass. We swear every time Doug says, 'This one's for you, Chappie,' we get emotional. 

Anywho...readers will recall we had the US attack Libya in World War 1990: Battle of the Three Seas. An excellent subplot if we do say so ourselves. 

In case younger reader(s) think European obstinance is recent, back in '86, President Francois Mitterrand wouldn't let F-111s out of Britain overfly French territory. We've banned Perrier ever since. 

Here's what we wrote on Operation El Dorado Canyon in issue 266 the (Feb, 2011) of Strategy & Tactics Magazine:

In light of this intelligence and the constant nuisance that Kaddafi had been throughout his administration, President Reagan authorized a retaliatory airstrike against Libya. In fact, the Air Force had been planning for just such an operation for months.

On 14 April, an Air Force strike group composed of F-111 Aardvark’s from the 48^th Tactical Air Wing took off from RAF Lachenheath, their target was Kaddafi’s headquarters in the Azzizyah barracks, the Sidi Bala terrorist training camp to the south, and the Tripoli Airport.  As France had denied the use of its airspace, the strike group had to fly around the Iberian Peninsula and enter the Mediterranean via the Straits of Gibraltar, a route which required two in flight refueling missions per plan. While the F-111s were in transit, USS America and USS Coral Sea launched a strike force tasked with hitting the Jumahiriya Barracks in Benghazi and the nearby Benini airfield.

Under cover of EA-6B Prowlers which jammed Libyan radars, Navy A-6 Intruders and A-7 Crusaders began the attack with a barrage of 30 HARM and 12 Shrike anti-radiation missiles aimed at Libya’s air defense radars. Divided in strike groups of three, around midnight, the F-111s hit Tripoli. A pair of Aardvark’s scored direct hits on Kaddafi’s headquarters (rendering attacks by the other seven Aardvarks unnecessary). At the same time, a trio of F-111s hit the Sidi Balal camp. Tripoli airport was struck by six F-111s which cratered the landing strip and damaged half a dozen aircraft besides. At Benini airfield, Navy Intruders destroyed another six aircraft and two helicopters. The Jumahiriya Barracks was also struck. In all, American aircraft spent 11 minutes over their targets. One F-111 was shot down.

Tactically Operation El Dorado Canyon was a complete success proving the effectiveness of American smart weapons and the durability of the F-111. That being said, the use of bombers flying out of Great Britain was totally unnecessary and most likely a move taken to appease the Air Force bureaucracy. There was mixed reaction abroad. While the Soviet’s response was muted, El Dorado Canyon sparked outrage in Europe. The strike only deterred Kaddafi for a few years, as Libyan agents bombed Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie Scotland.

So yeah...yesterday afternoon we went over our magazine article and publication list. We haven't had anything in print since 2022 and have only written a piece from scratch three or four times since 2016. See these articles in Military History Matters.  2016 was also when we focused on Pershing in Command in earnest. Article writing had taken us as far as it could, and we figured why not write one big article, a history book. 

We've published, we think, four articles on the American Revolution. One on the strategy & tactics of the war, one on William Washington, one on Bloody Banastre Tarleton, and one on Otho Holland Williams. To our surprise we're only sitting on a pair of publishable pieces, one on the Battle of Monmouth, one on Nathanael Greene's southern campaign. The latter has been submitted. 

The leader of this blog's Confederate Contingent suggests we do an American Revolutionary War book. Na. Pershing in Command never really sold. In truth, we never really thought it would. But we are sorely tempted to get back into the magazine article writing fray what with America's 250th and all. We've been bored for a while. Why not? 

Will May Revolution

Good morning, Stroock's Books supporters. Did you know every time you purchase one of our books, somewhere, a terrorist dies? 

The temp is already 57 degrees (which feels like a heat wave after this winter) and whoa, 87 this afternoon!

We tested the AC yesterday and felt arctic cold streaming from the vents. Still we look ahead to today's high temps with [Great fear and trepidation?-Ed] great fear and trepidation. 

So two congressmen resigned yesterday over sexual misconduct allegations, one of them after his former girlfriend set herself on fire. Just a banner day, congress. A banner day. 

And Trump is sending out memes of himself as a kind of healing MAGA Jesus. Lord have mercy. 

Today is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. We say this a lot, but still...now the Jews have guns, tanks, fighter jets and nuclear weapons. 

We hate the Holocaust. And we hate Holocaust remembrance. Always have. The Holocaust teaches Jews to be victims. So no. Instead, let's remember kicking the ever-living crap out of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran these last two and a half years.

Related...on Substack we get a lot of grief now from pseudo-right, Tucker jerk off fan bois. We use them to generate content, but we're running out of insults. One can only say, 'When you were 13, I bet some pretty little Jewish girl broke your heart' so many times. My but we are attracting them, though, aren't we.

In Ireland the Garda are calling in 'sick' and the Dail is holding a no confidence vote on the government today. Remarkable. Even so, Dublin will crush the fuel protestors. 

DOGE Report.

We worked on World War 1990: The Managua Campaign. We've three scenes showing the actual war. We're just showing things moving along, and we're not getting bogged down with street level fighting, though that fighting is occurring. No more Derrys! [Do you not like Derry?-Ed] It's not that it's just...[Just what?-Ed] We shrug.

We did a little research. Reminder, the Honduran Army should be taken seriously. 

So we actually sent out a magazine article query yesterday. It's been ages since we've done that! The query was for an old piece we wrote about General Nathanael Greene in the American Revolution. 

Also we read over an old unpublished piece about the Battle of Monmouth. We wrote the piece more than 20 years ago, and man, it's like a time warp. We're too wordy. We use too many commas. We have far too many interjections. We could go on. Who was that guy that wrote that piece? 

Given the American Revolution's 250th anniversary, we could spend the next few years cranking out magazine articles on same. Afterall we have an MA in the American Revolution. But should we? Why not? For starters we'd have to dig out our 100 or so books on the American Revolution. Reminder, after the flood of 2021, our library remains boxed up. 

Today we shall think of some article ideas.

Heat Morning, AC Afternoon

Good morning, Stroock's Books Monday people, and welcome to your New Jersey weather update.

Right now the heat is going but later the temps will hit 80 and we'll turn on our brand-new AC. Wish us luck.

Four days in a row at the gym. Today we rest. 

Victor Orban conceded defeat in Hungary. We shrug. Also we keep seeing the opposition described as 'center-right'. We shrug again. We dunno. Here's a profile of the new guy, Magyar. Could be a lot worse. Orban was in power for 16 years. You gotta go sometime. We await events. 

Does Orban's loss foreshadow Bibi's in Israel? Maybe (we uptalked that). Lots of interesting poll data here from Ynet. Nut-graph as the J-School losers would say, Israelis oppose Iran ceasefire.  And Israelis want to keep beating up Hezbollah too. Hell yeah. Finish it, Bibi.

Speaking of, the Times of Israel tells us that the IDF is clearing Bint Jbeil, Hezbollah's capital in south Lebanon. ToI reports the 98th Division is on the ground there. That means the Paratrooper and Commando brigades. Cool.

Also, The Jerusalem Post asks if Turkey is positioning itself to replace Iran. The answer is yes. Which is why Israel has been fostering relations with Cyprus and Greece. Those Jews. They're clever, as the imams say.

Stroock's Books renews its call to wrap things up and wind things down, gradually. 

[So how do you think the war is going, actually?-Ed]

Maybe we'll do a post on that tomorrow. 

[Okay, good. It seems your commentary has been somewhat restrained-Ed].

It has.

[Why?-Ed].

Well, 20 years ago 21 really, we assured ourselves that the press was wrong about the Iraq war and everything was fine. This was especially true after the Battle of Fallujah and the River War campaign that brought Anbar back under Coalition control. Even so, things were, in fact, not fine. In 2006 the Insurgency proved stubbornly resilient.  So we've held off on declaring victory or getting overly ebullient. 

DOGE Report,

Okay...Sometime yesterday we realized that we need a Contra/FDN set up chapter. We've written about several major Contra/FDN group commanders, Enrique Bermudez (head of the Contra/FDN military wing), Dimas, Tigrillo, Mike Lima, Quiche, real men with their real names. We've used these scenes to mention the Contra/FDN political element and reference Violetta Chamorro. We're pleased.

Let's go over the plan. Go look at Google maps...there we go. 

1-The Contras will hit the Nicaraguan border from Trojes in the center right down to Ocotal in the center-left, a space of about 90 miles. 

2- Pan American forces led by the Honduran army will attack down the flat country on the Pacific Coast toward Managua. They'll kick in the door and then hand the advance over to the Contras. Reminder, one should take the Honduran Army seriously. 

3-Contra forces advance southeast toward Managua under US air umbrella and naval support.

Objective: capture Sandinista leadership and the exiled Castro brothers. Install friendly government. 

More on the plan tomorrow. 

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 4/12/26

We may be in mid-April but we are also in New Jersey and that means the heat kicked on.  

A busy Saturday. 

We were raking up the yard yesterday (we actually stepped on the rake and smacked ourselves right in the head) when we noticed that one of the bushes had died over the winter. So we got to break out our chain saw, which was nice. 

Later we did the dishes, washed and folded the laundry. 

[Oh, interesting stuff. Though stepping on the rake is funny-Ed].

Our point is we had a lot going on yesterday. 

In between chores we research World War 1990: The Managua Campaign and learned much. 

We finished up yesterday with a trip to the gym. 

We had a weird dream last night about cousins we haven't seen in 20 + years [You're dream journaling now too?-Ed]. We are, we are...

Will's Good Idea for the Week of 4/12/26. Huh, today is the 38th anniversary of asking out our first girlfriend [You remember that?-Ed]. Always have. We remember lots of pointless stuff like that, much to our detriment. Thirty-eight years though, damn. Spring 1988, what a time. As Eddie Money once crooned... There's a reason A Line through the Desert takes place in 1988. Go on and click through. 

Anyway, Will's Good Idea for the Week of 4/12/26...we are expanding the FDN assault into Nicaragua. We've added a task force between the Jalapa task force and the Ocotal task force. The new task force will harass Sandinista forces and logistics between Ocotal and Jalapa. We're also adding another task force in Jinotega province (look at the map).

Saturday Updates

Good Saturday morn, Stroock's Books weekenders. 

Yesterday we had a fine lunch hour lounging on Rutgers' campus while Oldest Daughter was in class. We got plenty of sun, and many a coed walked past and wondered, 'Why can't that handsome gentleman be my professor?' [Oh my god. Sorry, folks-Ed].

Negotiations between the US and Iran are ongoing, they say. Thought, we worried about Gaza negotiations last year. But the final deal brokered was more than acceptable to this blog. We see no reason for worry now. 

We remind the readership that we're weary of this war and think it's time for Israel and the US to wrap things up. Okay, we wouldn't mind if the US Air Force and Navy resumed blowing up stuff in Iran. 

Israel and Jews have a huge image problem and a long postwar awaits. 

The Things.

We researched the Sandinista military while lounging at Rutgers.

Alert reader(s) will recall our daily DOGE Report updates this week. We had a fine week with both World War 1990: The Managua Campaign, and the 5th nuke novel, The Fourth Day. We are prepped to have another fine week. 

Nicaragua, Ireland, Space...Whatever

Happy Friday, Stroock's Books Kibbutzim, and Shabbat Shalom. 

We actually did a semipolitical post on FB yesterday, which we almost never do. Nixon's the one! Blog Will, FB Will, and Substack Will are different enemies. Where these entities to combine, Will would rile the earth, and his son the galaxy. 

Yankee spring is in full effect. Temps are 36 degrees at this moment. This weekend we'll get the yard ship-shape and Bristol fashion.

New Jersey reservoirs are busting; busting! Precipitation is still down 10-15 percent though. 

Out of nowhere we had a random gout attack last night. We were sitting on the couch and felt our left foot seizing up. At first we thought the pain was due to post-gym muscle tension. Then we asked if the pain was gout related. Stroock's Law: if one has to ask if it's gout, it's gout. We hit the gout with a cherry juice cocktail and a couple of colchicine pills. The gout is nuked and only some residual soreness remains.  

We haven't shaved since leaving for Key West. Why not?

We got back on twitter the day before yesterday just to check something out. After checking out that thing we remained on twitter. This was a mistake. We knew a lot more and were unhappier for it. We deleted our twitter. 

We just don't feel we need the minute-by-minute Israeli updates anymore. In truth, we're of the opinion that it's time for the Israelis to wrap things up - on all fronts.  'When are they going to stop?' we were asked a year and a half ago. Only fools think Israel and the United States haven't badly hurt Iran and its proxies. 

The Gaza deadline is tonight, BTW. More war in Gaza? So we shall see. 

The Israeli public seems dissatisfied with the war. Israel polls remain all over the place - as they have for at least a year. Netanyahu will still have the best shot at forming a coalition. 

Ireland is in revolt over fuel prices and the cost of living. We've seen this kind of thing before (Canada, the Netherlands) and don't hold out much hope. The state, the apparatus, Angkor, will prevail. 

DOGE report.

Excellent work yesterday.

We think we've figured out what our Soviet cosmonauts aboard Salyut do. 

Plenty of progress with World War 1990: The Managua Campaign. We're showing Contra (FDN) progress down the Nueva Segovia River Valley, without getting bogged down in tactical engagements. No more Derrys!