The Soviet, Russian and World War 1990 Matrix...

...Or Will continues colluding.

Joe committed a classic Kinsley gaff by accidentally saying what his people are talking about in the Situation Room; using chemical weapons, sending the 82nd Airborne to Ukraine, and Regime Change Russia. What makes these geniuses think the next guy would be any better than Putin? Propping up Mr. Pro-Western Democracy Boris Yeltsin in the 90's led to chaos and eventually Putin. Biden's advisors really think they can remove Putin and create a Western European style social democracy in Russia, don't they? How's regime change worked out this century? These people learn nothing. Read some history on the plane trip to Davos next time:

A few observations on our third moral panic in three years. The Soviets have dug in around Kyiv and the Ukrainians are attacking there, or so it seems. Pundits claim the Soviets have run out of steam, and maybe they have. But what if they're also letting the Ukrainians use up their strength in local counterattacks. The Soviets have taken Mariupol (wonder if spellcheck recognized it before the war). That's an important victory for them.

[Soviets?-Ed]

We read through World War 1990: The Weser's opening chapter and came away pleased. There is little more we can do to it. The opening chapter sets up some NATO characters and NATO's general situation. Today we'll read the second chapter, which does the same for the Soviets. Characters include a Soviet Tank Regiment commander, the commander of the East German 9th Panzer Division, and a Soviet police battalion occupying an American base.

What Will's Watching, old Tom Clancy event. Here's Tom Clancy addressing the NSA in 1986. He talks about The Hunt for Red October, his career and his writing process. Interestingly a lot of the tech stuff Clancy wrote about was conjecture, and that conjecture was mostly correct. Funny as he says, 'So I'm working on this novel called Patriot Games.' We've only ever reread one Tom Clancy novel, Red Storm Rising, once in 1988 when we were fifteen and once again in 2003 when we were 29. We stopped with Debt of Honor. 

Will's Second Good Idea for 2022

We spent yesterday afternoon taking up the basement stairs carpet and removing carpet tacks. Fun. Next up: replacing the trim, sanding and staining. We think the stairs look fine as is, but Mrs. Stroock wants them stained so....

We've been thinking a lot about writing, deadlines, and publishing. Writers we came of age following like Tom Clancy, Jerry Pournelle, Larry Bond, Mack Malony*, would go years between publishing. It took Jerry Pournelle 30 years and death to wrap up his Janissaries series. George R.R. Martin is notorious for not finishing GoT. We've got a long way to go before we're in Martin's territory.

Still, the fact is we didn't get anything out in 2021. We're disappointed in ourselves. There's a good reason for this. The Great Nuclear War of 1975 grew and grew till it split in two. Sometime around October we realized we wouldn't get the MS done in time to put it out before the new year, at least not an MS with which we'd be satisfied.

We don't know if reader(s) are tired of the book updates, but we know we're tired of writing them. It's time to publish. So this week we're getting The Great Salvation of 1976 ready to go to the editor. The Weser will be ready to go by the end of this month. 

We realized we still have to write an intro and acknowledgment for The Great Nuclear War of 1975. We're tempted to write a long essay on our nuclear war and post nuclear war methodology. But no. Let people simmer. Let them wonder how and why we think what we think. We'll include an essay in volume three. Tomorrow we shall write the first 1,000 words of volume three. That's our good idea for the week of 1/9/22.

*Trashy and fun! If our parents knew what was in those books...We just wanted to mention Maloney. He generally put out a Wingman novel once a year.