In the Biblical world war was a fact of life for everyone … Some Bible rules provide insight into war’s devastation. The Bible Rules IV: War, History 2014
The level of destruction promoted was unusual. ibid.
Every jackass thinks he knows what war is. Especially those who’ve never been in one. Flags of Our Fathers 2006 starring Ryan Phillippe & Jesse Bradford & Adam Beach & John Benjamin Hickey & Paul Walker & John Slettery & Barry Pepper & Jamie Bell & Robert Patrick & Neal McDonough et al, director Clint Eastwood, opening scene
Kabul, Afghanistan … a city of 3 million … This is a story about the seen and the unseen and things hidden in plain sight … I’d been working as a war reporter for more than a decade. Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield, 2013
We were told that the battle for hearts and minds was being won. ibid.
‘This is the third raid in my district. 13 or 14 people have been killed in all. They were innocent people.’ ibid. local rozzer
‘We would rather die than sit back and do nothing.’ ibid. Afghani
‘The Americans used knives to dig the bullets out of their bodies.’ ibid.
Congress wasn’t going to investigate. ibid.
In the last three months there have been 1,700 night raids in Afghanistan … but not a single name. ibid.
I’d worked in Baghdad for years and had written countless stories there. Many from the front lines of the war … But I’d never heard of JSOC. I’d missed the most important story. In Iraq the US had fundamentally changed the way it fought war. The real story – JSOC – was hidden in the shadows, out of sight. ibid.
JSOC could now hit at will in countries beyond JSOC and Afghanistan. ibid.
In December 2009, 5 strikes with over 150 casualties in a country without a declared war: Yemen. ibid.
It was clearly a cruise missile that struck the Bedouin camp. ibid.
Awlaki began to see the expanding wars as part of a global attacks against Islam. And his sermons reflected a growing anger. After 9/11 Awlaki was put under surveillance … he was locked up for a year and a half without charge and spent seventeen months in solitary confinement. When he was finally released Awlaki was a changed man. And after JSOC tried to kill him his transformation was complete. ibid.
The War on Terror was producing new enemies wherever it struck. How does a war like that ever end? ibid.
By Afghanistan there were thousands – but now the list itself was changing. Signature strikes, TADS, crowd killing … the global war on terror was spinning out of control … Algeria, Indonesia, Thailand, Panama, Jordan – the world was now a battlefield. ibid.
For over a decade JSOC and the CIA had free rein in Somalia. All their tactics were on display: drone strikes, night raids, mercenaries. As the War on Terror entered a second decade Somalia seemed like a laboratory of the future. And the future looked bleak. ibid.
These images were shot in 2004 in the city centre of Baghdad by a non-professional. A guerrilla ambush as it occurs almost every single day. Waging war inside these bullet-proof SUVs these men aren’t in any way armed forces but private security guards – they are in the front line. They even have their own helicopters. In Iraq there are 20,000 or so civilians who operate on behalf of private security companies. Private Armies aka Inside Blackwater: Iraq’s Most Controversial Private Military Contractor, 2007
Kabul: it’s one of the main operating grounds of these private companies throughout the world. ibid.
The United Kingdom systematically delegates the protection of its embassies located in risky countries to private companies. ibid.
Blackwater: the world’s largest private training centre. ibid.
All of these wars are part of the same design … The Project for the New American Century which is this blueprint of global domination which was published before the succession of Bush to the White House. It is essentially a blueprint; it identifies the stages in this war … The war on Iraq was already planned … Iraq is first, then Iran … To secure access, control and ownership over these reserves. Michel Chossudovsky, lecture McMaster University Ontario 25th September 2003, ‘War and Globalization: The Truth Behind September 11’
Authorised by the Security Council or under Article 51 … Article 51 is generally interpreted to allow the use of force when the necessity for action is instant, overwhelming and leaving no choice of means and no moment of deliberation. Noam Chomsky, lecture Edinburgh University 2005, ‘Illegal But Legitimate: A Dubious Doctrine for the Times’
‘Your violent and chaotic society always bears within it war as a sleeping cloud bears a storm.’ Jean Jaures, French socialist leader, cited Plutocracy III: Class War
Aerial photography for ever changed the art of spying. Secrets of War s1e17: Spies in the Sky
Sidney Cotton was gone but his legacy to British photo-intelligence was beyond dispute. ibid.
A war was fought by a small nation [Israel] surrounded by enemies. Secrets of War s1e26: Shadow of the Six-Day War
After six days the war was over. On the seventh day the Israelis awoke to the realities of a new Middle East. ibid.
Electronic warfare has developed into an essential component of American security. Secrets of War s1e40: The Wizard War
This gave the British the first radar barrier ever built. ibid.
Deception has always been a vital part of military warfare. It’s often been the basis of stunning victories. It can save equipment and lives, reducing the cost of victory. Modern deception came of age in the planning rooms and on the battlefields of World War II. Secrets of War s1e41: Battlefield Deceptions
Self-deception: one of the most dangerous traps of all. ibid.
The use of tunnels to mislead an opponent is a centuries-old tactic. ibid.
In the last half of the 20th century spy planes soared through the stratosphere. Secrets of War s1e42: Spy Planes
U2 … was given an elaborate cover story, that it was a weather plane designed for scientific experiments. ibid.
By the early 60s a new supersonic spy plane was being tested and refined in the Nevada desert: codenamed Oxcart … known as the Blackbird. ibid.
To this day there is controversy over how the A-12 was used. ibid.
Boeing’s KC-135 jet tanker – a cousin of Boeing’s 707 commercial airliner. ibid.
Spy planes made their debut in war in all shapes and sizes. ibid.
Global Hawk has an incredible array of high resolution sensors on board … an altitude up to 65,000 feet. ibid.
Psychological warfare: shadowy and little understood part of military operations. Secrets of War e51: Psychological Warfare
Baghdad Betty tried to appeal to the predominantly male American troops. ibid.
Loud-speakers were also mounted on tanks. ibid.
The Germans tried to persuade Allied soldiers with radio broadcasts and leaflets. ibid.
Like the Japanese in World War II, the North Koreans and Chinese often struggled with the English language. ibid.
Psy-Ops became the new all-encompassing American term. ibid.
An exotic world of shimmering beauty and sudden death, a place where honour means more than life itself. In Search of History s3e6: Samurai Warrior
Tradition here prizes grace, tranquillity and harmony with nature but tradition also celebrates the fierce warriors of Japan the Samurai; their era lasted for more than a thousand years only ending in the middle of the nineteenth century. ibid.
History’s most effective and terrifying warriors. ibid.
There was nothing remarkable about women holding samurai status. ibid.
A showdown with Britain that beings over a pig; an all-out war waged in Korea but not in 1950; a little known US invasion of Russia; and controversial interventions in Central America and the Caribbean. In Search of History s4e1: America’s Forgotten Wars, History 1999
1859: In the Pacific north-west a handful of angry farmers on tiny San Juan island are about to plunge the United States into a war against Great Britain: they’re not quarelling over the issue of slavery or states’ rights, believe it or not they’re fighting over a dead pig. ibid.