Walter Kirn has slipped into sounding like Garth Marenghi.
Jonathan Howard@joho.bsky.social · yesterdayThese guys are freaking out over their own imaginations again.
Zach Dorfman
@zachsdorfman.bsky.social
National Security Reporter. Features in Politico, Rolling Stone, Wired, Foreign Policy. Working on a book on the history of deep cover for Penguin-Random House. It’s always Berlin 1989 somewhere. Email: thebrushpass1@protonmail.com
Jonathan Howard@joho.bsky.social · yesterday
Formatting endnotes in a completed manuscript is a Dante-like test designed to drive the writer to the brink of madness.
it takes a lot to make me say “i’d rather hang out with curtis lemay” but macarthur really makes it so easy
Zach Dorfman@zachsdorfman.bsky.social · 2d agoContinuing my Korean War/Halberstam posting: It’s hard to convey how malignant Douglas MacArthur was, how anti-democratic, what a persistent threat to civil-military relations. Conversely, George Marshall was a man of towering integrity and wisdom.
Got to the part of the book where MacArthur’s literally fascist G-2 suppressed all the copious intelligence about the hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops who had crossed the border so his boss could make a lightning run to the Yalu and declare victory and was sickened.
Secretary of Defense Rock@sodrock.bsky.social · 2d agoWe welcome any and all MacArthur slander
MacArthur, in addition to beinng anti-democratic, also left a lot to be be desired as a military commander. I don't think Halberstam talked about this is in the book, but he had 9 hours warning after Pearl Harbor that a Japanese attack on the Philippines was imminent and did nothing.
Continuing my Korean War/Halberstam posting: It’s hard to convey how malignant Douglas MacArthur was, how anti-democratic, what a persistent threat to civil-military relations. Conversely, George Marshall was a man of towering integrity and wisdom.
Tremendous news about one of the best national security writers and editors working today, Sharon Weinberger, taking the helm as the new Editor-In-Chief of the “Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.” thebulletin.org/2026/08/the-...
The Bulletin welcomes Sharon Weinberger as editor-in-chief
The Bulletin’s new editor-in-chief, Sharon Weinberger, has dedicated her career to covering the intersection of science, technology, and national security and will guide the Bulletin’s editorial effor...
thebulletin.org
Halberstam’s key takeaway is that the decision to conduct American foreign policy according to what many leaders knew to be a total Illusion for domestic political considerations had tragic decades-long ramifications that cost immense blood and treasure.
Zach Dorfman@zachsdorfman.bsky.social · 3d agoOne thing that Halberstam does brilliantly in “The Coldest Winter” is linking red-baiting (“who ‘lost’ China?”) and the growing political power the pro-Nationalist China Lobby to the decimation of the State Deor’s East Asianists, causing decades of distorted foreign policy through the Vietnam War.
One thing that Halberstam does brilliantly in “The Coldest Winter” is linking red-baiting (“who ‘lost’ China?”) and the growing political power the pro-Nationalist China Lobby to the decimation of the State Deor’s East Asianists, causing decades of distorted foreign policy through the Vietnam War.
Found two separate declassifications of the same document from 1949, with different redactions. Ridiculous that anything from that far back ahould be censored, but a side-by-side comparison shows the redactions in the more blacked-out version to be overwhelmingly banal.
Rudman's image of DOD as an "avaricious shark" that "slurps up" IC capabilities is gonna live in my head for a long time.
Zach Dorfman@zachsdorfman.bsky.social · 6d agoDeclass 9/11 documents are incredible: "DoD is an 'avaricious shark' and tries to grab everything it can," said former Senator Warren Rudman. "DCI Tenet is very frustrated by it but will not say so publicly. The 'giant sucking sound' is the sound of DoD 'slurping up IC functions,'" said Rudman."
Declass 9/11 documents are incredible: "DoD is an 'avaricious shark' and tries to grab everything it can," said former Senator Warren Rudman. "DCI Tenet is very frustrated by it but will not say so publicly. The 'giant sucking sound' is the sound of DoD 'slurping up IC functions,'" said Rudman."
"A US government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a state department presentation at a global conference in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attenders who took screenshots and posted them online."
US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference
State department ‘takes full responsibility’ for erroneous, widely shared chart displayed at Aids conference in Brazil
theguardian.com
This is the entire takeaway of "Rise and Kill First" (2018) by Ronan Bergman
Horkos@wylienewmark.bsky.social · 6d agoThinking about how every Mossad operation is an abject failure but they always kill enough people to make it look cool