A copy of the top-secret memo below recently came into our hands, and we thought we should bring it to your attention! “Dear National Security Elite: In an ideal world, the public would simply accept whatever their leaders— you, in other words—told them. They would comply with restrictions and mandates, not as a matter of mere obedience, but as a matter of unquestionable patriotic duty. But we don’t live in an ideal world. And with the fate of the world, especially the world’s wars, in the hands of our enlightened , benevolent , and eminently responsible national security elite—in your hands, in other words—we can’t afford to risk opening the conversation to an informed public. And we certainly can’t risk asking for anything so antiquated as “consent,” either. Not when the stakes are this high. You simply must learn: How to control the narrative—every narrative—in your favor; How to completely capture the media and effectively quash dissent; How destroying liberty creates more liberty in the long (long) run; Why top-down economic planning, here and abroad, is your best friend; How to flout international, and of course domestic, law and get away with it; And much, much more… The danger with any book like this is, obviously, that it may fall into the wrong hands. If any member of the general public should happen upon these pages, the consequences would be fatal. After all, people may realize that the national security elite— you, in other words—are not, in fact, all-powerful harbingers of peace… They may realize that you are, literally, a force for good… armed and relentlessly attempting to bend the planet to your noble will. And that realization would be nothing short of disastrous. Don’t let this book fall into the wrong hands!” Merciless in their penetrating analysis, Christopher J. Coyne and Abigail Hall have written the satirical portrait of America’s contemporary military-industrial complex. Drawing inspiration from the 1936 classic How to Run a War , by Bruce W. Knight, this book is a must-read for anyone who would know the truth about America’s endless wars and the people who run them…. The truth might just set us free. It will certainly make you laugh. Then—really angry.

Recommended on 1 episode:

Why Russia Is Losing the War in Ukraine

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the question most analysts were asking was not whether Russia would win. It was how fast. On almost every quantifiable metric from military strength to economic size Russia has decisive advantages over Ukraine. A swift Russian victory appeared inevitable. Of course, that swift victory didn’t happen. And in recent weeks, the direction of the war has begun to tilt in Ukraine’s direction. On Sept. 6, the Ukrainian military launched a counteroffensive near Kharkiv in northern Ukraine and regained 3,400 square miles of territory in a week — more territory than Russia had captured in the last five months. Analysts are now saying it’s unlikely that Vladimir Putin can accomplish one of his chief aims: annexing the Donbas by force. Andrea Kendall-Taylor is the director of the trans-Atlantic security program at the Center for a New American Security. She’s a former intelligence officer who, from 2015 to 2018, led strategic analysis on Russia at the National Intelligence Council. When we spoke, she was recently back from a trip to Ukraine. And she believes that the long-term trends favor a Ukrainian victory. In this conversation, Kendall-Taylor helps me understand this watershed moment in the war. We discuss why Ukraine’s recent counteroffensive was so significant; how it and other recent developments have hampered Russian morale, manpower and weapons supply; whether sanctions are really influencing Russia’s strategy, and how sanctions might get worse; how this conflict is profoundly changing Europe; whether this recent turn of events signals a possible Ukrainian victory; why “personalist dictators” like Putin can be so dangerous when backed into a corner; how likely it is that we’ll see stalemate or settlement negotiations in the near future; how Kendall-Taylor rates the likelihood of various outcomes; what we should expect in the next phase of the war and more.

Books recommended:

• 📕  Lessons from Russia's Operations in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine by Michael Kofman, Katya Migacheva, Brian Nichiporuk, Andrew Radin, Olesya Tkacheva, Jenny Oberholtzer
• 📘  The War for Ukraine: Strategy and Adaptation Under Fire by Mick Ryan
• 📗  How to Run Wars: A Confidential Playbook for the National Security Elite (Independent Institute Studies in Political Economy) by Christopher J. Coyne, Abigail R. Hall
• 📙  Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 by Stephen Kotkin

Andrea Kendall-Taylor Sept. 23, 2022 4 books recommended

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