John T. Reed’s news blog

Mike Medlock is the President of the United States in my forthcoming novel The Unelected President. He has a very different approach to military force than any prior president, but I argue it is based on common sense, which is an uncommon virtue in government and the U.S. military is government. The basic principle is the U.S. should use military force as a last resort, but that when it is used it should do maximum possible harm to the enemy’s ability to hurt or threaten us in the shortest possible period of time at the least cost in blood and...

Even when Obama’s right no one believes him. Obama’s current policy on Syria is correct for the right reasons: stay out—it’s a tar baby—it is not strategic—IS is not a threat to the U.S unless they become a rich state—Russia will bankrupt itself spending a lot of money trying to prop up Assad.His prior policy—the red line and Assad must go were disasters because you don’t say stuff like that unless you mean to enforce it. But Obama has told so many lies and been so feckless and evasive in so many instances that he has turned himself, and the...

Copyright by John T. Reed ‘Natural great leader’ I have heard Obama’s groupies describe him as “brilliant,” as a “great politician,” and as a “great natural leader.” I’ll set the first two aside for the moment, but I know he is no leader. I do not see myself as a great leader. I am the kind of guy who comes in second for home room representative, gets selected team captain or club president occasionally. I am not the type who gets elected fraternity president, class president, mayor, or any of that. Notwithstanding my minimal traditional leadership ability, I have a...

Interesting article at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/us/despite-concussions-boxing-is-still-required-for-military-cadets.html?_r=0. It is about freshman mandatory boxing at West Point. Teddy Roosevelt started it at West Point President Theodore Roosevelt made boxing mandatory at West Point. Also horseback riding and swordsmanship. They got rid of the horses and swordsmanship in the 1940s I think. But we had to do the boxing when I was there. I thought it was super for instilling the idea that in war you either hit or get hit and hitting is better. Football also does that, but although they have intramural football at West Point, it is not mandatory. It was mandatory that...

Ben Carson is getting crap for saying he would have attacked the gunman in OR had he been there, and invited everyone else to join him.He is quite correct. It’s just common sense. I wrote an article advocating just that albeit with some technical details like attacking when he is changing magazines. Here’s another technical detail. Classrooms typically have two things that could be used as weapons: desks and chairs. They may also have a fire extinguisher which can be squirted at the gunman’s eyes and then when it’s empty, used to bash his head in. I think the Flight 93...