Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 10
When the Editor at Large of the Wall Street Journal writes a story about the impending war (not trade war, war war), even in jest, it’s worth reading:
Gift link:
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/a-look-back-at-the-war... A Look Back at the War That Is About to Begin
The U.S. easily won the 2026 Battle of Greenland, but the consequences proved convulsive for all.
Historians differ about the real origins of World War III. Some think its roots lay in the disastrous U.S. interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2000s, which weakened American authority in the world, emboldened rivals, and sapped domestic support for assertive military projection overseas. Some cite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the first major land offensive in Europe since World War II, breaking an 80-year taboo on armed conflict for territorial advantage. Some argue that the rise of China from the 1990s onward made conflict more or less inevitable, the world falling again into the [Thucydides Trap] of an emerging power posing an existential threat to the strategic hegemon.
But there’s general agreement about the crucial precipitating factor that led to the third global conflict in a little over a century: the brief and—or so it seemed initially—stunningly successful U.S. victory in the Battle of Greenland in early 2026.
It wasn’t much of a battle, to be sure. President Trump, fresh off his swift and effective intervention in early January to [topple] and bring to trial in the U.S. Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and his wife (who were later pardoned by President JD Vance and now run a chain of retail cocaine stores based in Palm Beach, Fla.), doubled down on his “Donroe corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. More…
No. of Recommendations: 1
Journalists have a terrible burden, and it never ends.
So much white space and no real news or information to fill it with.
But the white space is the Master who must be served.
If reality doesn't suffice, make up the gap with fiction.
If ordinary fiction doesn't suffice, then try fantasy.
Not impressive.
No. of Recommendations: 10
If reality doesn't suffice, make up the gap with fiction.
If ordinary fiction doesn't suffice, then try fantasy.
We’re all keeping our fingers crossed that, for the first time, you get something right.
No. of Recommendations: 4
I keep thinking back to the beginning of Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August.
No. of Recommendations: 0
Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and his wife (who were later pardoned by President JD Vance and now run a chain of retail cocaine stores based in Palm Beach, Fla.)
Oh hell no! Egads.
No. of Recommendations: 0
So much white space and no real news or information to fill it with.
But the white space is the Master who must be served.
RWNJs just KEEP IT WHITE.
Putting ANYTHING on it would--by their definition--require it be WHITEWASHED.
ZERO thinking there--and it shows.
No. of Recommendations: 1
The piece started off pretty good, but immediately after your excerpt, it devolved into the “woke bashing” that I would expect from a Murdoch rag.
So it’s a mixed bag at best.
—Peter
