The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was the grandest cathedral in the Christian world, until it was captured and converted to a mosque by the Muslim Ottoman Turks in 1453. The Middle East is full of churches and synagogues turned into Islamic sites. Today, every traveler in a modern European city can notice the new mosques…
Author: The Tactical Hermit
Going to War Without Skin In The Game
It is interesting to note how many pro-intervention, pro- “boots on the ground” neoconservatives have never served in the military. I’m grateful that America treats its veterans better now than it did in decades past. My father was spit on by hippies when he came home from Vietnam. Yet, “thank you for your service” comments…
Border Security: Deportation Raids ARE NOT Stopping Families From Entering the U.S. Illegally
With bags on her shoulders and her four-year-old daughter in her arms, a 25-year-old single mother named Amanda fled her village in El Salvador without saying goodbye to her parents or siblings. She was focused on just one thing: survival. “I owned a store, and gang members made me pay them $200 of what I…
Terror Watch: ISIS Thugs Urge Attacks on American Soil During Ramadan
FYI: Ramadan this year is June 5th thru July 5th, so keep your head on a swivel and Stay Frosty. -SF BEIRUT, Lebanon – The Islamic State group appeared to try to keep morale high among its supporters in a new audio message released on Saturday, which also called for attacks on the US during…
Primed to Fight The Government: The Patriot Movement
A fast-growing U.S. movement armed with guns and the Constitution sees a dire threat to liberty REDMOND, Ore. — B.J. Soper took aim with his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and fired a dozen shots at a human silhouette target. Soper’s wife and their 16-year-old daughter practiced drawing pistols. Then Soper helped his 4-year-old daughter, in pink…
Military Weapons From The Past: STG-44’s in Africa?
This is a neat follow-up to an event I had strong doubts about being authentic in the first place.-SF A while back, a video made the rounds of a cache of StG-44 rifles being found in (allegedly) Syria – I commented on it here, in fact. It was pretty much without any context, though. Where…
Military History: The Amazing Legacy of Military Aviation Legend Chuck Meyers
Chuck Myers Was a ‘Fighter Mafia’ Legend He helped pioneer nimble air-superiority fighters, the A-10 Warthog and played a pivotol role in bringing back the battleship Charles E. “Chuck” Myers, a valued and colorful member of the military reform movement and “Fighter Mafia” co-conspirator, died on May 9 at the age of 91. He devoted…
World War Two Movies Worth A Damn: Cross of Iron (1977)
Sam Peckinpah is without a doubt, one of my favorite movie directors (and screenwriters) of all time. If you have not seen it already, I highly urge you to watch the 2004 Documentary “Sam Peckinpah’s West: The Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade.” It is a fitting tribute to a true artist.-SF ‘Cross of Iron’…
Surveillance State: Smart Policing
Power Loves the Dark Police Nationwide Are Secretly Exploiting Intrusive Technologies With the Feds’ Complicity By Matthew Harwood and Jay Stanley Can’t you see the writing on the touchscreen? A techno-utopia is upon us. We’ve gone from smartphones at the turn of the twenty-first century to smart fridges and smart cars. The revolutionary changes to…
World War II History: The Battle of Metz 1944
For those, like this writer, who esteem the arts of modern fortification, Metz is the Florence of military architecture. I greet the spring each year in Metz. This imposing city combines the dazzling, art modern architecture of the France’s Maginot Line with the pre-World War I older forts of the great builder, Serré de Rivières….