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Chapter 3, VII. Summary: What History Teaches About Trump, Bush, and the War We’re In Now
Asymmetric warfare is not a modern invention. It is the oldest strategic logic in the world. From the siege of Troy to the desert...
john raymond
Jul 72 min read
Chapter 3, Section IV: Early Islamic Expansion: Nimble, Networked, Ideological
In the seventh century, a force emerged from the Arabian Peninsula that would shock the world and redraw the boundaries of power. Within...
john raymond
Jul 72 min read
Chapter 3, Section VI: Byzantine Diplomacy: Delay, Divide, and Survive
The Empire That Refused to Die In a world where empires rose and fell through brute force, the Byzantine Empire thrived through something...
john raymond
Jul 73 min read
Chapter 3, Section V: The Mongol Shock: Terror as Asymmetric Overmatch
The Mongols were not merely masters of conquest—they were engineers of terror. They did not overwhelm the world’s largest empires through...
john raymond
Jul 72 min read
Chapter 3, Section III: Sun Tzu: War Is Deception
"All warfare is based on deception." So begins one of the most enduring and potent strategic insights in history. For Sun Tzu, deception...
john raymond
Jul 73 min read
Chapter 3, Section II: The Trojan Horse and the Myth of Perimeter Defense
We begin, appropriately, with a lie—with a deception. The fall of Troy is not just a tale of war—it is a parable about perception. The...
john raymond
Jul 73 min read
Chapter 3: Asymmetry Is the Oldest Strategy
Section I: Opening Provocation: The Strong Lose Because They See Only Strength Empires do not fall in spite of their strength. They fall...
john raymond
Jul 72 min read
Dear Jake Broe: Trump Lets It Slide—And That’s the Story
Jake Broe, in his latest Ukraine update , covers a whirlwind of wartime developments, culminating in a record-breaking Russian drone and...
john raymond
Jul 63 min read
GOP Voters in Texas Are Fucking Morons: Their Leaders Clearly Don’t Care About the People of Texas
Drowned, Washed Away, and Forgotten Texas was once again struck by deadly flooding. Torrential rains submerged entire neighborhoods,...
john raymond
Jul 62 min read
Chapter 2, Section VII. Conclusion: The Coordination Collapse of the West Begins with One Man
Trump's presidency was never just a national crisis. It is an international rupture. To understand his true strategic significance, one...
john raymond
Jul 52 min read
Chapter 2, Section VI. Trump the Chaos Node: Disruption as Treason in Asymmetric War
In symmetric war, the enemy faces you across the battlefield. In asymmetric war, the enemy sits beside you in your own command tent. In...
john raymond
Jul 52 min read
Chapter 2, Section V. Why Asymmetric Warfare Makes Traitor Generals So Dangerous
In symmetric warfare, the rules are straightforward. Two sides face each other with comparable means—troops, tanks, strategy, and...
john raymond
Jul 52 min read
Chapter 2, Section IV. Pillar One: Regime Security Is Just Strategic Selfishness
We often hear that autocrats obsess over "regime security." But this phrase—neutral and clinical—obscures the brutal simplicity of what...
john raymond
Jul 53 min read
Chapter 2, Section III. The Continuum of Selfishness: Why Not All Actors Betray
When we talk about betrayal, we often resort to cartoonish binaries: someone is either a patriot or a traitor. But in truth, loyalty—like...
john raymond
Jul 43 min read
Chapter Two, Section II: The Traitor General and the Byzantine Problem
How do we coordinate when one of our leaders is a saboteur controlled by a foreign power? This is the question posed by the Byzantine...
john raymond
Jul 43 min read
Chapter Two, Section I: Opening Provocation — What If the Buffoon Is Also the Traitor?
People argue endlessly over what, precisely, Donald Trump is. Is he mentally unfit? A malignant narcissist? A fascist? A grifter? A...
john raymond
Jul 42 min read
VII. The Lessons Never Learned
The War on Terror was not merely a military failure or a policy mistake. It was an epistemic collapse. The greatest strategic mistake of...
john raymond
Jul 33 min read
VI. Indoctrination and the Disappearance of “Sides”
In the age of asymmetric warfare, the traditional concept of warring "sides" begins to collapse. What replaces it is not clarity, but...
john raymond
Jul 32 min read
V. Russia Saw What We Refused to Learn
After 9/11, America launched a war that restructured its own understanding of power. But while we were busy bombing Baghdad and...
john raymond
Jul 32 min read
IV. Regime Security Over National Security: How Bush’s Self-Preservation Project Masqueraded as National Defense
After 9/11, the United States had an opportunity to rise above fear and respond with clarity, strength, and wisdom. Instead, what we got...
john raymond
Jul 32 min read
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